Where to ride Sunday 1-14-07 ?

[Mark Johnson]

Any signs of wind today?
Rush, Strawberry or Skyline?
Anyone else headed out?

[Kenny]

High Pressure overhead - Skyline is probably your best bet today. It will be light, so bring some snowshoes or cross country skis just in case it is not enough.

The Pineview Dam should give up AM rides the next few days as the inversion strengthens. I don't know what the surface is like there - Augie or Les - please give us an update.

[Craig Goudie]

I love this stuff! I have no idea why it will blow at Pineview under a winter
inversion, but you've obviously got experiencial knowledge. Keep
up the good work.

-Craig

High Pressure overhead - Skyline is probably your best bet today. It will be light, so bring some snowshoes or cross country skis just in case it is not enough.

The Pineview Dam should give up AM rides the next few days as the inversion strengthens. I don't know what the surface is like there - Augie or Les - please give us an update.

[Kenny]

Craig,

First of all, I am glad to see that you are keeping up with the forum. Second, the invitation is always open for you to come snowkite.

I cannot take any credit for discovering this curiosity. However, I think I understand why it occurs. During a strong inversion, the valley floor is much colder than the mountain air. This creates a nice flow of cold air that happens to funnel at the Pineview Dam. Currently, the mountain air is still cold after the last cold front. It may take a couple days of warming before the wind is kiteable. I personally have only kited there once during an inversion last year. I found that you don't need much wind to get moving on the ice. It is a good place to learn how to snowkite.

I would like to know how often it blows there in the morning. I recall that it blows most days, but intensifies during an inversion.

Kenny

[Marty Lowe]

This is a link for current conditions..
In Weber canyon.
It gives a good idea if there may be
winds in Ogden Canyon.


http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/ ... time=LOCAL

-Marty

[lesvierra]

Here is what I have found from Pineview and luckily I know little about weather, so this actually comes from my experience and some of my made up theory that you can through to the wind.

Kenny is right on in that during inversions with cold nights without clouds, cold air sinks to the bottom of ogden valley. This can be seen easily if you drive from the valley floor to snowbasin. The valley floor, or pineview, will be 10 to 20 degrees cooler than it is up at snowbasin. Because this cool air sinks, it funnels out over the spillway and down towards Ogden. It blows the hardest right after unsettled warmer weather and the first couple of cold cold nights (strong temp gradient). It still blows after days of inversion. We are still talking about a breeze though, 5-12mph, averaging somewhere in the middle. If you ski, I believe you will have more fun than on a board because you can generate speed and apparent wind quicker.

The weber canyon gage may be a good indicator. The winds at the mouth of weber canyon blow much stronger than the mouth of ogden canyon because the cold air reservoir is much bigger from mountain green all the way up to echo and there is much more cold air coming down the canyon.

Last winter, I think I had wind every day during days of inversion. I was always out between 9 and 12am with a 15m yarga, 10m frenzy was usually not enough. It is a great place to learn and also work on light wind technique. While it will not entertain the adrenaline glideing and jumping crowd, it is still cool to cruise in 4 inches of fresh powder up and down the narrows especially with skis. With a big kite you can even get some air... Cant wait to see how my 20m waroo works.

I saw tracks on the res early last week and Auggie has been out a couple of times too. It looks to have great coverage and is good to go. When you park at the dam keepers house, if you seen the weeds moving, it'll be good. If there is hardly anything swaying, Its amazing how it is still blowing down on the ice, so go check it out.

[Augie]

In response to Kenny's question as to what the surface is like. It is not the typical surface that we get at Pineview. We typically have a layer of rotten ice/snow between the snow layer and the ice. That type of surface is really pretty good because you can dig your edges into it.This year we had glare ice form with no snow to muck up the top. Then we had a cold snow storm drop several inches on top of the glare ice. This new snow is not bonded very well to the ice and somtimes you are directly on the ice. It is fairly fast. It is kind of an extreme "dust on crust".

Les is right about checking the wind- you need to get out of your car and walk to the edge of the overlook at least, to see if the shoreline trees and bushes are moving. Remember, you need almost no wind to get moving since it is hard and flat. I have also experienced another down canyon effect that occurs about 2:30 when the mountains cool off.