Kirkwood, CA = 82″ of Snow in 48 Hours & Closed Yesterday

SnowBrains | | Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions ReportPost Tag for AvalancheAvalanche
Kirkwood yesterday.  photo:  kirkwood
Kirkwood yesterday. photo: kirkwood

Kirkwood ski resort has received 82″ of snow in the past 48 hours and 98″ of snow in the past 7 days. ย Kirkwood was closed due to high avalanche danger yesterday and they very well may be closed again today.

Kirkwood Official Statement Today @ 5am:

10โ€ of new snow on the deck since 5pm, Temperatures 24.7@Summit – 26.8@MidMtn -29.4@the Base. Wind Speeds are 15.3 SSW@Summit with 10.@the base. We will start the day out here on Snow-Safety hold on all lifts with an expectation of delays on all lifts as our Pro Patrol & Mtn. make their on-mountain assessment. We will address and announce Lift status / Scheduled / Hold / Closed around 7am. Roads: SR88 is under R2 restrictions as reported by Cal Trans @0400. Both passes are open. Slowโ€™yr roll here today, again we are on snow-safety hold, no need to run the Kirkwood500 and not make it out here. There is plenty of new 24%SWE snow, seriously, plenty!
New summit snow totals for the past 7days here:
12hr – 10โ€
24hr โ€“ 36โ€
48hr – 60โ€
72hr โ€“ 82โ€
7 day โ€“ 98โ€ = EIGHT FEET โ€“ ONE INCH!

Mountain teams are getting ready to load up early and start their snow-safety routes this morning, there as always is a lot to do in the early morning hours. You will be hearing a โ€œfewโ€ charges this AM as we work around the summit. Please no-uphill access stay clear of the mountain as we are still in a high Avalanche Awareness status. –ย Kirkwood, February 10th, 2014

Kirkwood Official Statement Yesterday:

“Let me tee-up the expectation for tomorrow, as you can see (below graphic) we have another large band of moisture approaching. The forecast for tonight is 12โ€ to 24โ€ with temperatures dropping significantly tonight. This being said, (again Caveats are inserted here) current temps are: 28.3@summit 30.7@Mid-Mtn with the base temp @32.6. Snow water content today and over the past 3 days is close to 24% SWE (Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) equaling what we like to call โ€œSierra Cementโ€โ€ฆ. (Another caveat inserted here) This is perfect for the base we have been lacking and have needed since December. This is not โ€œColdSmokePOWโ€

Kirkwood yesterday.  photo:  kirkwood
Trying to dig out. ย Kirkwood yesterday. photo: kirkwood

We are looking to open 6 lifts, at least that is the goal, and the challenge tonight / overnight is โ€œhow much snow do we get overnightโ€ โ€œwhat are the temperatures overnightโ€ & โ€œwhat does the AM weather look likeโ€

So to answer the question of what are we opening? We need to wait, watch and seeโ€ฆ I will be posting up out here & on twitter and Kirkwood.com as early as 0430, but Mtn. teams need to get out on the Mtn. and assess before I am going to post โ€œScheduledโ€ โ€“ Snow Safety needs to be run again in the morning & we still are in a โ€œHigh Avalancheโ€ awareness situation.

Here are the totals:
Base Summit
12hr : 10โ€ 14โ€
24hr : 31โ€ 50โ€
48hr : 46โ€ 72โ€
Over the last 7days we have received – 91โ€ = 7.5โ€™ wow!ย 

We want to open, we want to open more terrain, but we will not sacrifice safety, just to say we are open. We have a lot of work to do, we want us all to be safe, we want us all to enjoy and most important we want to open Kirkwood to 100%, It will take time, energy and effort. We are ready, our team is fired up and we want you to come home to KirkwoodMtn!” – Kirkwood, February 9th, 2014


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