It seemed harder for my wife and I to adapt this time to the change in weather and altitude but then again it usually takes about 24 hours at least to feel more normal at this altitude and then walking around in 35 degrees after daytime highs between 68 and 79 that we experienced the last few days at lower altitudes with flowering Almond trees coming up Interstate 5 that sort of makes sense.
My friends up here were thinking it's going to be an early season for everything likely even up here. I looked up at the mountain and there isn't the really deep snow cover that would be normal for this time of year either. Not enough big storms dumping huge amounts of water and snow on Mt. Shasta and the surrounding area. For this time of year it is normal to see almost no rocks at all on Shasta through the snow and that definitely isn't happening this year. I think they are under 50% of normal precipitation and likely If I guessed between 40 and 50% of normal rainfall and snow for this time of year so far.
Of course this all could change on a dime especially with the last few years of Rain into May throughout the state which never usually happens (in the past) past about 3 or 4 years ago at least. So, I guess we are in a new weather pattern and we will see what happens next.
We drove up to Bunny Flat today which was a beautiful sunny day and ranged from about 36 to 40 degrees there at 6900 feet while we were up there with many mountaineering cross country skiers skiing all over and even one snowmobiler out with his snowmobile off his trailer and off into the wilderness south of the road which is allowed there at Bunny Flats.
Our friends decided to ski from Bunny Flats to upper Sand Flats Road which seemed to be the goal of many skiers today. They said it was icy and so they were glad that they hadn't tried to ski all the way to Lower Sand Flats Road today.
Last week they had skied from Bunny Flats to 7 mile Curve which is my favorite Mountaineering skiing route that is fun on Mt. Shasta which you can easily do with 2 cars (leave one at 7 mile curve and one at Bunny Flats) and then ski down to the other car. They said it was great last week but I think a lot of snow had melted off in the meantime so they would need more snow especially over some of the Manzinita which can get pretty dangerous to ski over if they snow isn't deep and firm enough to do that.
So, you need the right conditions for it to be safe but when they are it is sort of like skiing at a ski lift with manicured snow when it is good.
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