January observations, YOTB, & JGuppie

Basin plot for the South Platte, Feb 2nd, 2010

January 2010 is now over and the stats are in. El Nino sucks for snowfall in NorCO. The Basin plot shows us well below average for precipitation (80%); I truthfully can't remember the last time it snowed over an inch at the ranch! The wind has been much less intense and frequent than most other years that I can remember which is really nice, but I have to admit, i'd rather have the snow.

On January 5th, we had a week of really sunny and warm weather - over 50 degress at 8,400ft. It was so warm that the mountain chickadees were singing their mating calls up and down the valley thinking spring was here...! The willow up-valley have started the greening of their shoots while the elk take samples. So while the overnight lows have been pretty low (less than 10 degrees each night for most the month), the daytime highs have been above 30. It's a warm winter for sure. I hope the southwest flow that El Nino intensifies will produce some big upslopes in the coming months when the Front Range usually gets the biggest dumps. But it's not looking safe or good for the Aspen area where my Margy's hut trip is a mere 8 days away. With nearly 50 human-triggered or natural avalanches in the last couple of weeks, we will do well to stay on the lower-angled slopes and not even toy with steeper slopes because that faceted base-layer that has persisted this entire winter looks like it will stay for the rest of it.

On another note, while hiking the gups out back found a well preserved (suncrusted) set of bobcat tracks walking downhill towards the back meadow. The year of the bobcat (YOTB) it certainly is!

And here's Jessica Guppie showing off all her toys - an orangutan and tie-dyed bear in the above picture. Jessica is hilarious, she must have 'bird-dog' genes because we definitely did not teach her this. Each night before bedtime especially but also after breakfast, dinner, and at random other times throughout the day, she goes and grabs as many stuffed animals that she can fit into her mouth and does her best impression as a runway model showing off all her prizes to the other dogs and humans. It is so freaking cute, it never gets old.