Now that feet and feet of snow have fallen—where does all of it go?

Hundreds of truckloads a week

by Mark Reaman

There is some snow out there in the valley. Everywhere. And if it isn’t moved, everything shuts down. The towns, the ski area, your life would all grind to a halt if the snow wasn’t hauled away from the driveways and the streets.

Every plow and snowblower that can has been working hard for two weeks. But what happens to the feet and feet of snow that is moved?

As one reader asked, “Where oh where does all the snow go?” One hint: You know that volcano that spews water on the Strip in Vegas? You probably skied this week on what could eventually be part of that Vegas spew.

The valley has seen larger overall amounts of snowfall in the past but this recent storm was consistent and wet. The moisture content was big. According to Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District general manager Frank Kugel, probably no one is surprised that this January storm has had a real impact on the basin’s water stock.

“January has been a particularly good month for our water supply,” Kugel confirmed. “We began the month with a projection of only 85 percent of normal Blue Mesa Reservoir inflows for April through July. This below-average inflow projection, despite heavy snow in December, was due to our very dry late summer and fall. Since January 1, the inflow projection has increased from 85 percent to 134 percent of normal. This year’s early bounty stacks up quite well compared to the big snow years in recent history—2008 and 2011.”

The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center tracks water content in the basins, and looking at the Butte and Schofield SNOTELS (the sites that measure area snowpack), this storm was not small. Kugel pointed out that based on the forecast center numbers, the pace of the current snowpack is ahead of the record snowpack year of 1995, which didn’t really begin its above-normal accumulation until mid-February.

When the snow comes so quickly, it has to be moved somewhere so people can get around. The town of Crested Butte’s main snow storage area is in the gravel pit south of the community school and at the big lot next to Rainbow Park. The town, along with six private contractors, hauls snow from the streets, alleys and driveways to the gravel pit.

“The last two weeks have been wild,” said Crested Butte Public Works director Rodney Due. “Everybody is scrambling. Our priority is the streets. We want to pull the snowpack and widen the streets. It was a ridiculous storm. We had crews working 24/7.”

Due said the town has hauled about 350 dump trucks full of snow just from Elk Avenue. Each truck carries about 12 cubic yards.

“Rainbow Park is almost full to capacity,” Due explained. “It’s really early in the season to be full over there. As for the gravel pit, we have had to hire private snowcats to push the snow back and enlarge the pit to make more room for snow.”

Due and town manager Dara MacDonald said they have appreciated everyone’s help when it comes to assisting the snow crews. People are trying to park on the correct side of the street at night and are understanding of the overall situation.

“We will be pulling up the snowpack on the streets this week at night and we know it is loud, but we hope people understand that once we pull the pack they get their street back,” said Due.

Snow is also keeping Mt. Crested Butte busy. Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick said that seven staff members have put in 169 hours of overtime in two weeks to deal with all the snow. The town typically has to haul snow out of Pitchfork at the entrance to town and sometimes from parts of Emmons Road, which it stores in the parking lot to the north of the Grand Lodge and parking structure, which will eventually become the home of the Biery-Witt Center.

“We have the advantage here of having more room to put snow, but have hauled 175 loads out of Pitchfork so far, not including today,” Fitzpatrick said on Tuesday. The limits of that area are being tested with this recent storm cycle.

“We suffer from not having another snow dump site right now,” Fitzpatrick said. He said the town used to store snow on land owned by the town next to Town Hall, but it created too many issues with debris, garbage and even noxious weeds.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort also deals in snow. While resort executives like keeping the snow on their trails, the company too has to haul a bunch away during these big storms. The parking areas by the Grand Lodge and the parking structure along with the walkways to the base of the ski lifts all accumulate so much snow that it could hamper customers getting to the skiable powder on Jokerville or Cesspool.

CBMR general manager Michael Kraatz said the resort hauls away just a fraction of the snow that is dealt with by Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, but it is one thing the resort must deal with.

“Like everyone, we’ve had a hard time getting trucks to haul the snow away,” Kraatz said Monday. “But this is a good problem to have. Frankly, if we were in the opposite situation with no snow, that would be a much bigger problem.

“We finally have some trucks lined up for this week,” Kraatz continued. “Right now we are stockpiling the snow from the parking lot and the parking structure north of the buildings. To get the snow out of the area by the Treasury Center we can load it only between 5 and 8 a.m. It will probably take a few days to move it all and historically we have it hauled up to the North Village at the base of Snodgrass.”

Kraatz said the snow that is plowed in the main parking lot stays there. It is piled up on the edges of the lot.

Kugel points out that snow at a ski resort is compacted and can act as a reservoir of sorts. “The snowpack does act like a huge reservoir. Now, if only we had more control over that release valve,” he said. “CBMR has the added storage component of the snowmaking, which enhances the runoff season on the lower portions of Washington Gulch and the Slate River.”

So it appears we can expect a decent wildflower season up here this coming summer. Wet winters feed the colorful summers. Spring will bring an interesting runoff so homeowners might think flood insurance and sandbags now before it’s too late. And the boating in the rivers and on the lakes should be pretty decent throughout the valley.

Eventually most of this sweet winter snowpack will end up west and downstream of here. It will melt into the Slate and the East Rivers and flow into the Gunnison and Blue Mesa Reservoir. From there, it will head toward Montrose, where some of it will be used to raise crops. Some will wind up in Nevada, where you might drink it between Cirque du Soleil shows or dice rolls in Vegas. Some of the stuff you are skiing on this week could be used to water a golf course for Tommy Martin in Scottsdale, Arizona or could make the spring houseboat experience a bit higher at Lake Powell.

As for the short-term, “I don’t think we have any worries about having enough snow for the Alley Loop,” noted MacDonald.