How to determine snow conditions of a hike?

[AaronPDX]

I see this link for snow levels from the main OH page, but the page seems pretty cryptic to me:

http://www.or.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/maps/o ... temap.html

I just want to find what elevation will have snow, for a Salmon-Huckleberry hike. Any advice on how to find this info?

Thanks,
Aaron

[Bosterson]

Try this one: https://www.fs.fed.us/r5/webmaps/Sierra ... lon=-121.7

[RobFromRedland]

At the end of the day, the only way you will know for sure is to go try it, or talk to someone who has done it this season. There have been many occasions when I thought I could get to a trailhead - all the snotels and snow depth models showed it should be accessible, but then on the way I hit a north facing slope and run into two feet of snow and have to turn around.

[AaronPDX]

Thanks Bosterson! That's a much more helpful site.

And thanks Rob; that makes good sense...

[retired jerry]

I like http://adamschneider.net/hiking/snow_depth.html

Same as Nat's, except if you click "usgstopo" it overlays with usgstopo

[Bosterson]

I like http://adamschneider.net/hiking/snow_depth.html

Same as Nat's, except if you click "usgstopo" it overlays with usgstopo

Oh nice! I actually emailed Caltopo to ask if they could add that USGS snow layer as one of their preset overlays.

Good work Adam.

[AaronPDX]

Cool stuff, Jerry (and Adam). Looks promising. Will play with this before my next hike!

[retired jerry]

One thing about those maps, is they give the average snow level over an area of about 1 mile square

If you want to know the snow level on a ridge, for example, it can be narrow so over the 1 square mile area there is about zero snow, but there's still a significant amount on the ridge. Or there can be snow on north facing slopes or in a narrow area on the lee side of a slope.

It'll give you an idea though