Season in Review: December

It's been a while. Previous posts in this series can be found here: https://www.patrickpfister.net/2017/06/12/season-review-november/ and here: https://www.patrickpfister.net/2017/05/26/season-in-review-septemberoctober/ Now for December... December can make or break a season. The days are short and typically very cold. If we don't get snow, nasty persistent weak layers can form in the snowpack. We were plagued by a rotten snowpack for much of the previous five seasons due to a lack of significant snow in November/December. A big December can lead to a deep snowpack, which is nice to have come spring when we get periods of warm, dry weather between storms. This December was the best I've had in my seven seasons living in Utah. It was easily one of the best months of the season in my opinion. Copious amounts of snow fell in the first few days of the month. Tanner Crow and I had several very productive days in the backcountry. I think we rode pow almost every day from Thanksgiving to around December 8th. We had a big warm up in temperatures around the 9th as high pressure temporarily took control. A warm, huge storm rolled in on the night of the 15th. By afternoon on the 16th, storm totals were close to two feet and densities were on the high end. Great snow for building a base. Also great for making the commute home from snowbird absolute hell. As the snow kept falling, temperatures began to plummet. By the time the skies cleared on the 18th, it was well below zero Fahrenheit up at Alta. Our coldest tour of the season was on the morning of December 18th, when it was -9 at the Grizzly Gulch parking lot and the high for the day was around -1. The snow gods gave us the greatest Christmas gift possible with another huge storm and another crazy deep pow day on Christmas day. December definitely delivered. Things were shaping up nicely for the rest of the season. Our attention turned to January, and a return to the Land of the Rising Sun...