After a fall filled with hype, I’m starting to believe. Since the last Unofficial Networks State of the Backcountry report the greater Tahoe area has been going off! Pow day after pow day has blurred memories of four straight drought years and put a major spotlight on El Nino. In fact, the snowy January we just experienced in Tahoe has put us above average in terms of precipitation for the year, and in the present, conditions in the backcountry are as good as one could possibly hope for as we enter February.
Looking back, the faucet turned on in December, and through the New Year storm after storm dropped copious amounts of new snow. More recently, a few warmer storms temporarily interrupted the dream that backcountry skiers and riders would ride powder every day of the month in Tahoe. However, the water was more than necessary, and the warm systems actually helped clean out a scary, ongoing issue in our snowpack.
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