The lodge has been getting rain, and lots of it. However its been "
dumping" in the alpine, and the snow line is at the top of the
Home Run cut block, just above the lodge. Powder skiing at Chatter Creek is not far away!
Overnight, the freezing level is dropping to SX6, or below. That's the point on the Chatter Creek Main (road) just below
the Nose, a few km below
Vertebrae lodge. During the day, it rises to about 6000 ft. The
Golden Weather now reports a low of
-3degC, so things at the lodge must be cooling off.
Weeks of heavy rain has played havoc with
Life on the Chatter Creek Road. The mud has made the road impassable to all vehicles, even the Hummer. Until the freezing level drops to harden up the road, no supplies will be getting through to the lodge, not even fuel. Ah, the joys of operating a large backcountry lodge!
Snow at the Lodge seems a little later than in prior years. In late September 2002, when Vertebrae lodge was being constructed, the first heavy snow at lodge level came a few days
before the roof was completed. Days of shovelling snow and scraping ice from the floor of the dining hall resulted. Here's a photo from a year ago, showing snow at lodge level in October, 2004. It's a bit dreary, but things brighten right up by the end of November, when there is a good snow cover. Scroll down to our "
December Snow Story" for more about early season snow.
Golden has been getting snow flurries. Daytime freezing snow level has been about 1200 meters, dropping to the valley floor (780 meters) overnight. The Chatter Creek Lodge elevation is about 1640 meters, about 900 meters above Golden. The photo to the right is a recent shot of the ridge above the lodge.
