Larch Mt. Any Snow?

[Guy]

We were thinking of doing Larch Mountain this weekend & hoping there would be snow up there. Anyone know what the snow situation on Larch is at the moment?

Thanks!

[awildman]

I have heard that there is snow. I'm not sure where it starts, however.

[-Q-]

hi guy,

indeed, there is some snow on larch mountain.

i parked at the milepost 10 snow gate last saturday (3/1) and started walking up the road. about 1/2 mile up the snow started on the road (around 2800 feet or so). more snow on the road than in the trees.
the snow started getting deeper at around milepost 12. by the time i got to milepost 13, everything was covered. there is probably around 10-12" of snow at the top of larch mountain.

the freezing rain on saturday did not help the already poor snow conditions.
the snow was crunchy to begin with, but turned to ice by the afternoon. everything was iced over.

hope this helps

[kepPNW]

We found similar snow levels along Herman Creek on Saturday. Nearly a foot at about 3000' - all packed stuff from the previous storm - with an inch or so of fresh fluff on top. But I'd be inclined to think that this last week of incredibly high freezing levels and warm rains has beaten that nearly to the ground by now?

[Eric Peterson]

Hey Guy, you could always check this out for approximate snow depths, not as accurate as first
hand observations - Interactive Snow Information

[Guy]

Thanks for all the feedback & the link guys.

[Lurch]

More accurate than Eric's, but not as accurate as I would like, you can also check out the Snotel reports. I generally us the 'North Fork' station, that's sitting at 3060' but it's not always a good sample of the more 'exposed' gorge locations

North Fork Snotel Station #666

Right now it's listing ~24" of snow

[retired jerry]

"More accurate than Eric's,..."

But the NOAA snow model that Eric posted is based on the Snotels, so they are identically accurate

Except NOAA interpolates between Snotels

Main NOAA error is they give the average amount of snow over a 1 (?) square mile area. A ridge can have significant snow, but since it's narrow, the average over the mile can be almost zero

Or there can be snow on clear area (like a road or trail) but not in the trees, so over the 1 mile area there's no snow

Or NOAA model will say snow melts off on a particular day, but it actually takes a week more or less than that

But you're right in that snotel is more accurate in that it doesn't have any of these averaging errors so for the exact snotel site, it's better, but then we don't spend much time at that exact site so it doesn't matter

[Lurch]

I only say more accurate because it gives a specific spot depth, not a range, and it would be safer to assume that areas similar to the Snotel site would have similar conditions