Too Much Snow

Is there such a thing as too much snow for a skier? The answer is YES. Today happened to be one of those days where we got too much snow in a single day.

This morning it started snowing at around 6 am. By the time my daughter got in the car to head up to Alta where they needed her to teach ski lessons, we had over an inch in the front yard. I got up and got ready to go with my wife and son and had to clean the driveway again. That means the snow was falling at around 2 inches per hour. We got close to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon when the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) closed it because of avalanche danger. With no expected opening time, we turned around and came home.

I got rather grumpy because I didn't get to go skiing today. My son, wife, and I did take the chance to practice with our avalanche beacons and probes so that we will be ready to use them should that become necessary (I sure hope not). Little did I know that my adventure with the snow had only just begun.

While I had made it home safely I still had my daughter up at Alta and I worried about her safe return. The avalanche danger got so bad that the resorts closed just after noon. That means there is a serious problem as ski resorts never close because of too much snow. While the road closed to all uphill traffic, they opened it to those headed down. Then a natural avalanche let loose and came across the road closing it to everyone. My daughter had made it from Alta down to Snowbird before being diverted off the road and into a parking lot. She then got directed into a concrete structure built to withstand an avalanche direct hit. There she waited for 4 hours.

The whole time my daughter waited to get down from the ski resort, I kept checking all of the technology available to me. UDOT actively tweeted about road conditions around the state and every once and a while would mention Little Cottonwood Canyon. They also have a great website where you can click on video cameras located on a map to get a picture of the traffic at that location. When my daughter would text me with information about where she was in the canyon, I could look at the video cameras and at least see cars on the road. If there weren't any, then the road was still closed.

Over 12 hours after leaving home this morning, my daughter finally pulled our trusty Jeep into the garage. The storm total for that 12-hour period? 23 inches, which turns out to be about 2 inches an hour. Yes, there can be such a thing as too much snow for a skier . . . but it is very rare.