A story inspired by a hiking trip in the High Tatras of Slovakia and Poland. It was useful for me to step outside the Northern Rockies mountain town "bubble" I've lived in for so long and take a closer look at my gear buying habits.
It's been years eight of measuring snow stats. Although I'm primarily a backcountry skier, I refer to the ski areas to take a look at snow depths and see how the winter looks compared to others. I also remind everyone of the musings of Jim Steenburgh, a professor of atmospheric science at University of Utah (Jump to the bottom of the post to read more or click on the links throughout.) discusses sun-angle and how it influences the snowpack.
A ski story from a few years ago. A shorter version appeared in Outside Bozeman last winter and the original draft appeared on this blog.
