Upper Ridge Snow Fields
The snow above the tree line arrived early this year and has not melted in the warm spells that should have taken it.
Above the tree line the summit holds snow from October through June in a normal year. The snow arrived this September. It has not melted in the warm spells that should have taken it — not much, a few centimetres, lying shallow over the bare rock in a way that looks temporary but has not been.
From below, the upper ridge looks the same as always: white against grey sky, black rock showing through, the stillness that belongs to altitude. Nothing up there is visible from the valley floor. The stillness is the same stillness it has always been. The weather readings taken at the summit post have been consistent and unremarkable and the person responsible for filing them has stopped coming down to do so, though she continues to go up.
The foxes that normally range from mid-elevation down to the lower forest edge have not come down this season. Someone left wire traps — legal, checked daily — and found them empty and undisturbed for six weeks. Tracks approach each trap from multiple directions. None of the tracks continue past. When the trap-checker asked the game warden about this she said the foxes had moved east, which is plausible, which is also something she said about last season's count.
The meteorological station at the summit is a prefab unit bolted to rock, solar-powered, designed for remote operation. Its readings transmit automatically. The reason someone physically needs to go up is to clear the intake filters and check the seals after storm weather. This is understood by the people who manage the contract. The summit technician has been going up on clear days — twice in one week, according to the logbook at the trailhead where climbers sign out. She returns within the expected window each time. She has not mentioned the filters to anyone she has spoken to since.
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