Trego's Mountain Ear

Tag: Grave Creek

• Community

  In the Seventies, it took a Week’s Work

  Now it takes a single click to get the data. So what does it mean?  I measured the record lows back in 1977 – this chart, from the Grave Creek site, shows how the critical snowfall that brings us up to normal or above occurs between the February measurements and April 1.  I don’t know if my record measurements will stand or not – but being the guy who measured something for the records doesn’t count for much. 

  Basin   Site Name	Elev (ft)	Snow Water Equivalent			Water Year-to-Date Precipitation
  		Current (in)	Median (in)	Pct of Median	Current (in)	Median (in)	Pct of Median
  KOOTENAI RIVER BASIN
  Banfield Mountain	5600	6.3	11.6	54	13.3	16.9	79
  Bear Mountain	5400	22.3	35.6	63	39.4	48.0	82
  Garver Creek	4250	4.8	6.8	71	9.4	13.2(24)	71
  Grave Creek	4300	8.8	10.7	82	22.7	22.0	103
  Hand Creek	5035	5.4	7.4	73	8.8	11.9	74
  Hawkins Lake	6450	8.7	16.5	53	17.7	21.2	83
  Poorman Creek	5100	12.6	23.4(22)	54	27.6	39.1(22)	71
  Stahl Peak	6030	21.4	22.0	97	28.5	26.2	109
  Basin Index (%)		67			84

  February 6, 2024
• Community

  Measuring Snow is Easier Now

  In the mid-seventies, I would start the week of snow surveys by leaving home a little before 7:00 am, meeting Jay Penney at Grave Creek, then snowmobiling up to Stahl Peak, Weasel Divide and then catching the Grave Creek on the way down.  After that it was a week of motel living as we would sample snow courses four more days, ending with Banfield Mountain.  Later in the decade, it would be 5 days in the Kootenai drainage, then 5 more in the Flathead.  By the end, we were going in by helicopter.

  Forty and more years later it’s a lot easier.  The snow pillows are attached to improved versions of the telemetry we pioneered, and solar-powered batteries have replaced the clockwork scrolls that once monitored the pillows 24/7.  (A pillow is a bladder filled with antifreeze that is pressed upward in a well as more snow sits on it, and down as the snow melts.)

  Today, there are fewer sites – and all it takes to check the snow depth is this web address: https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/snow/   It leads to a map, where you can click on a dot, read the snow/water equivalent, and learn the percentage of normal.  For example, as I write this, Stahl Peak shows 17.6” of snow/water equivalent, and is 103% of average.  Grave Creek matches the long-term average with 7.3 inches.  Hawkin’s Lake shows 110% of the long-term average with 12.8.  Give the site a try – we can all know how much snow is in the mountains, without leaving the living room. I thought it was easier for us with snowmobiles than our predecessors who did all the work on skis and snowshoes – but it is a whole lot easier now

  January 5, 2021