Yesterday's storm dropped over 4" of rain on us then turned to snow overnight & this morning, leaving us about 5" of fresh white stuff on the ground at the moment.

The road is still open, but it may close if the weather delivers as forecasted. Call or e-mail us before you visit this week.

Recently, radio journalist Carolyn Crane returned to Sagehen for a winter basin tour & interview with Brandon Schwartz, the USDA Forest Service Avalanche Forecaster. She produced a program that aired statewide on KQED's California Report this week.

Listen to the program--"Volunteer Avalanche Watchers"--on line.

We finally found a local gas station--at Northstar ski resort, of all places--that sells biodiesel, so we've changed the station's diesel vehicles over to this fuel.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable sources like soy beans or corn. It is usually mixed with petro-diesel to avoid conflicts with rubber engine parts used in some older vehicles, though it also makes a superior pure fuel with most newer vehicles.

Also, last year we began using cleaner burning 2-stroke oil for the snowmobiles, chainsaws & other station equipment.

A Berkeley group including our faculty director, Professor Jim Kirchner, has received a large grant from the Keck Foundation for some valuable & interesting research infrastructure for Sagehen & elsewhere:

"In an effort to understand the complete life cycle of water and, some day, to predict droughts, floods and water supplies, a team of geologists, biologists and chemists at University of California, Berkeley, is embarking on an ambitious project to track the fate of water through the atmosphere, the trees, the soil, the streams and oceans, and back again into the skies."

Read complete article