Snow pack Idaho and Utah

[RH300UM]

Public Service Announcement
Utah and parts of Idaho are experiencing record amounts of snow this year. Alta, a ski resort up little cottonwood canyon, just announced that the all time record of 748 inches has been surpassed.
In southeastern Idaho it's about the same story. What does this mean?
Well it means if you are planning to hunt around these states numerous issues may be encountered. All this snow will melt. Which means water. Lots of water. Washed out roads and bridges will be plentiful. Be prepared. Avalanches have been numerous and some are massive. Trials and ares will be packed with debris from these. Some high passes will be impassable this year as the snow won't melt. We've had high winds at times and some of the cornices are over 50 feet tall that I've seen.
Local, state and federal agencies will be overwhelmed with problems.
Then there is the wildlife Sadly they are suffering a great deal. Especially the deer. It's not pretty at all. Nature is all powerful and that is playing out here.

 

[crashlanding]

Your last paragraph, same here in Colorado, deer and antelope will take years to recover and now through in a wolf introduction, it gets worse. We drove up to Silt then drove north of Debeque today for kicks, elk and deer carcasses on both sides of I70, herds of deer, elk and turkey flocks all on the same range scrounging for food. Too much snow in all surrounding mountain areas and it seems like spring is no where in sight except for some longer sun and warmer temperatures

 

[LkeAF]

Here in south central Idaho we just had by far the worst avalanche cycle that I've seen in my life. I wonder how many animals were killed in that cycle alone, not to mention the fact that our snowpack is near record level, and the south facing slopes (which are usually where the animals can find some food through the winter due to sun burning the snow off in periods of dry weather) have been solidly covered with snow since early November. I've been here for most of my 50+ years and I've never seen a winter like this. Our elk and especially deer herds were just recovering from a bad winter in 2016-17. This one is shaping up to be much worse.

 

[26Reload]

Yep....bout the only thing that will survive well in Idaho will be whitetail...they survive like ticks....

 

[RH300UM]

Hope some of these survive
Watch them every night come down to feed

This poor doe didn't. She was at the window for 3 nights. Day 4 she died

 

[crashlanding]

That is harsh, at least these we saw today got into a safe area for food

 

[Wedgy]

Our California mountains have been getting hammered and I know the road are going to be trashed.

 

[Tidus56]

Public Service Announcement
Utah and parts of Idaho are experiencing record amounts of snow this year. Alta, a ski resort up little cottonwood canyon, just announced that the all time record of 748 inches has been surpassed.
In southeastern Idaho it's about the same story. What does this mean?
Well it means if you are planning to hunt around these states numerous issues may be encountered. All this snow will melt. Which means water. Lots of water. Washed out roads and bridges will be plentiful. Be prepared. Avalanches have been numerous and some are massive. Trials and ares will be packed with debris from these. Some high passes will be impassable this year as the snow won't melt. We've had high winds at times and some of the cornices are over 50 feet tall that I've seen.
Local, state and federal agencies will be overwhelmed with problems.
Then there is the wildlife Sadly they are suffering a great deal. Especially the deer. It's not pretty at all. Nature is all powerful and that is playing out here.

View attachment 450476View attachment 450477

Yes, Utah I hear isn't accepting out of state hunters so be sure you don't apply.

 

[waveslayer]

Plus they opened up cougar hunts... they treat them like coyotes now

 

[Tidus56]

Plus they opened up cougar hunts... they treat them like coyotes now

If that's true that's great news!

 

[LkeAF]

Another update on critters in the west. Not looking good at all.

MSN

 

[Tidus56]

Another update on critters in the west. Not looking good at all.

MSN

Man that's a sad article. I am always so grateful for snow or rain as we have had so many dry years in Utah. I was especially hopeful it would help the animals but apparently it was just more than they could take.

 

[LkeAF]

Man that's a sad article. I am always so grateful for snow or rain as we have had so many dry years in Utah. I was especially hopeful it would help the animals but apparently it was just more than they could take.

It's downright depressing. I never curse the rain or snow because we always need it, but it's a little much this year. And the fact that it started in late October is a long time to survive on little to no food.
I glassed a 5x and a smaller raghorn bull on the side of a hill/mountain across from my house back in January @ 8K ft. I hadn't seen an elk up there since early November and thought they'd all migrated out. I watched the two of them for exactly two weeks. They would spend half the day digging a dozen holes in 3 ft of snow to find something to chew on, and the other half laying down. In that two weeks, they moved @ 300 yds total. They finally dropped down into the gully at the bottom of that open slope and crossed over into the timber as best I could tell. Haven't seen them since, but I can't imagine they're doing well. Especially since that whole mountainside avalanched a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Tidus56]

That's terrible man, well hopefully this good year of moisture and pulling some tags out will lead to a recovery on the herds. Bummer though for the here and now