Today I hiked and snowboarded down Mt. Sneffels. Here's the classic view looking from the summit into Blue Lakes Basin. Notice all the ugly brown snow?
When it's windy in the western states, dust blows from the deserts and ends up smothering the mountains. It's a phenomenon that has probably happened naturally through the ages, but has become much worse in recent decades due in part to large scale grazing which erodes the desert soils. I've even heard that some of the dust blows all the way across the Pacific from huge dust storms in China!
In any case, the dust has a terrible effect not only on the snowpack but on the entire watershed. The dark dust absorbs much more solar radiation than pure white snow, causing a rapid meltdown of the snowpack. In heavy snow years like this year, it could cause flooding problems. In light snow years, it can cause premature meltdown, leading to drought conditions during the summer.
As for recreational effects, such as skiing, the dust can annihilate a wonderful spring snowpack like this year's. You can imagine my disappointment as I looked at all the beautiful ski terrain around the Blue Lakes Basin that is basically trashed and unskiable for the rest of the year. As for photography, well look at it! It looks like toilet stains. Also, on lower snow years, the summer wildflower seasons could really be hurt by the premature meltdowns.
While the dust layers can affect all the ranges of Colorado, the San Juans seem to get the brunt of it. I've noticed in previous years when the dust was much worse in the San Juans than in other ranges such as the Elks or Gore.
Snow scientists have recently begun studies focussed on the dust layer. It remains to be seen what the full causes and effects are, and whether there's anything we can do about it. In the meantime I will just mourn the loss of what could have been an epic ski season into July.
For reference, here's a picture I took from the summit of Sneffels in June 2005, another big snow year but without a dust layer. Notice how pristine white the snow is... the way it should be.
Well, considering I spent a good amount of time in the wind storms of southeast Utah this spring, I could understand this happening. The consequences of that dust layer was lost on me until you spelled it out. Its very unfortunate, not to mention unsightly.
How do expect us to think about brown snow when you post two awesome views to look at?! I love how that second one shows the Trinities, Arrow, Vestal, Sunlight, Eolus, Pigeon, and on and on. If I had a great big version I could kill a lot of time just staring at it and picking out peaks.
i have seen pink snow fron the red dust blown in from utah. the dust has actually contributed to the quicker melting of our glaciers here in colorado. the darkened pigment absorbs more sunlight, resulting in a faster melt.
Jack...thank you for that pano. Your work is really inspirational. Thank you for the info above...I love the dust free version.... hats off to you for getting up there and getting the shot!!! regards, Rajeev
I'm going to bring another perspective to this natural phenomenon. Certainly that dust is unsightly and yes it does have an impact on melting snowpack. But it can also bring trace minerals and other nutrients that may be beneficial to the ecosystem at large. And it may add to the soil base in the mountains.
This is a natural event as you pointed out yourself.
It could be as much related to grazing as the drought conditions that have affected the SW in recent years.
Or it could be all the NPN'ers traveling through the Utah desert kicking up dust in our SUVs.
Wow, what an interesting contrast between years -- I'm sure all the gale force winds in the last couple months couldn't have helped. Hopefully the melt doesn't happen as fast as signs are pointing too.
Thanks, Jack for the conservation lesson ~ Visually showing how we are globally connected. Is it really a natural phenomena if intense human pressure on the land creates dust pollution? I guess LA's brown cloud over The Grand Canyon is also "natural". Looks and reads like a magazine story to me.........
Great post and wonderful pictures to go along with it. It's not hard to prefer the 2005 view to this year's. The drought in Utah this year was pretty bad; I'm guessing travelers will be paying more attention than normal to the dust storm signs along I-70 this year.
Apparently, the BLM had the foresight to create demonstration plots to measure the effect of desert grazing. I ran across this during my recent wanderings around Utah this past month. This first fenced off plot was built in 1937. I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Of course, I should point out this doesn't necessarily mean this could be "the", or certainly the only, cause for dust blowing into Colorado. The plots are located in the San Rafael Swell area just north of I-70.
Here's a shot just outside the 1961 plot. Big change!! Here's an article on the issue after doing a search for "open grazing in Utah". http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Change/grazing.htm. This also shows an extreme example of a riparian stream before and after grazing. Pretty shocking...
Great pic. Represents an amazing part of how our world works. Sand traveling across the Pacific Ocean is actually common here in Colorado. Supposedly the sand dunes in North Park (North of Walden) is all sand that was taken up into the upper atmosphere from the Gobi Desert and then dumped into a small pocket.
Great views, Jack. I'm sure the earth will heal herself - nothing we do will last long in geological terms. That being said, I'm all for not doing more damage that we are.
Discussion
25 repliesWhen it's windy in the western states, dust blows from the deserts and ends up smothering the mountains. It's a phenomenon that has probably happened naturally through the ages, but has become much worse in recent decades due in part to large scale grazing which erodes the desert soils. I've even heard that some of the dust blows all the way across the Pacific from huge dust storms in China!
In any case, the dust has a terrible effect not only on the snowpack but on the entire watershed. The dark dust absorbs much more solar radiation than pure white snow, causing a rapid meltdown of the snowpack. In heavy snow years like this year, it could cause flooding problems. In light snow years, it can cause premature meltdown, leading to drought conditions during the summer.
As for recreational effects, such as skiing, the dust can annihilate a wonderful spring snowpack like this year's. You can imagine my disappointment as I looked at all the beautiful ski terrain around the Blue Lakes Basin that is basically trashed and unskiable for the rest of the year. As for photography, well look at it! It looks like toilet stains. Also, on lower snow years, the summer wildflower seasons could really be hurt by the premature meltdowns.
While the dust layers can affect all the ranges of Colorado, the San Juans seem to get the brunt of it. I've noticed in previous years when the dust was much worse in the San Juans than in other ranges such as the Elks or Gore.
Snow scientists have recently begun studies focussed on the dust layer. It remains to be seen what the full causes and effects are, and whether there's anything we can do about it. In the meantime I will just mourn the loss of what could have been an epic ski season into July.
Thanks a lot for posting the link.
Thanks for the story on the dust.
This is a natural event as you pointed out yourself.
It could be as much related to grazing as the drought conditions that have affected the SW in recent years.
Or it could be all the NPN'ers traveling through the Utah desert kicking up dust in our SUVs.
Ken
Ken