What's At Stake

...last week.
It was Boreal's slog to get enough snow to sell lift tickets for Halloween. After a long, warm, uneventful Fall...Mother Nature just barely bailed out their annual Marketing Push (read Stunt...hey...whatever gets you through the night)

Saturday November 2nd
How'd that Halloween thing work out for ya, Boreal?

Well...to quote Agent 86..."Missed it by that much!"

Boreal opened at noon on Friday October 32nd according to their website. I looked at their webcam around 4PM that November afternoon and things looked pretty threadbare...

Saturday morning their website was touting: "Snowmaking continues" they'll reopen when conditions allow.

According to the Reno NWS Forecast Office's AFD, snowmaking temps will arrive overnight. Alas the moisture tied to this cold front is hanging north of the I-80 Corridor, so none of Mother Nature's Finest will accumulate. However, good cold temps will hang around for a day or two, though warming is forecast into the weekend...

Bigger Picture
If the Winter 2013/2014 is another dry one, the West will be in trouble.

The 'D' Word, drought will become a stuck record on weather reports, the Six O'clock News and The Weather Channel.

The Drought is much more serious for the Colorado River where it's been 14 years of substandard precip.

I have a special place in my heart for the Colorado River. I've hiked both the Grand Canyon from the South Rim, across the river and up the North Rim to Roaring Springs, and Havasu Canyon from the South Rim all the way through Supai, down Havasu Falls and Mooney Falls to the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado.

My tally is three Grand Canyon trips and two Havasupai trips.

In the years since those adventures, I've taken two dozen fishing trips to Baja California.

The Colorado River empties into Baja's Sea of Cortez...or it used to. The mighty Colorado is so totally utilized to irrigate the Southwest, that barely any of the Colorado runs into the Cortez anymore.

The Cortez needs that water at least as much as lawns in Phoenix do.


I still haven't drawn a bead on this coming Winter...the Sun is still too quiet...

Like I said last time, I've got a bad feeling about this.