Pine Creek Cookhouse hosts event with Colorado’s lead climatologist

This past winter, Ashcroft Ski Touring lost two months of business with their horses due to the low snow.

That’s why Pine Creek Cookhouse will be hosting a dinner with Director of the Colorado Climate Center Dr. Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s head climatologist and top expert on Colorado weather, who will be presenting an overview of the past winter and what it might mean for the future.

“In the 50 years I’ve been here, or the 40 years as the steward of Ashcroft, I’ve never seen anything like this,” John Wilcox of Ashcroft Ski/Pine Creek Cookhouse said. “We snuck by. But we closed early.”

Jim Kravitz, director of Naturalist Programs at ACES, commended the event as “a great idea” and expressed his support for the education and accessibility of the presentation and dinner.

“We’re happy they’re doing it,” Kravitz said. “The more attention, the better, for this issue. These wake up calls, and these inconsistent patterns that throw us all off … I’m waiting to see what are we going to see when we look back on this year. These are things that affect our livelihood. The West and all the things we love about this place … all depend on a good stable climate.”

According to Schumacher, the past winter in Colorado and much of the western U.S. was “one of the worst we’ve ever seen in terms of the mountain snowpack,” having significant impacts on water supply, agriculture and winter recreation. At the Pine Creek Cookhouse talk, he’s aiming to give an overview of what actually happening and the impact of the drought that’s continuing into the summer.

“We appreciate the Ashcroft invitation to come and do this,” Schumacher said. “Pitkin County has been one of the worst spots in terms of the drought and lack of snowfall over the last year.”

He added that the lack of rainfall last summer compounded the extended warm and dry conditions.

“It’s been over a year that at least part of Pitkin County has been in D3 or worse,” he said. “That’s a long time to be in extreme drought conditions.”

According to him, Colorado has historically experienced bad droughts that make for low snowfall, but what was unusual was the above-average temperatures.

“We’ve had very bad droughts historically,” Schumacher said. “There have been very bad snow years in the past in Colorado. We know that sort of thing can happen. What set this winter apart was how warm it was.”

He noted that warming weather like last winter can make more naturally-occurring droughts more frequent or worse.

But while winters are warming and climate is changing, he said this past winter isn’t an indication of what will be seen every year.

“What we saw this winter is going to look like an extreme winter for quite some time to come,” he said. “Not every winter is going to be as bad as this one … and it’s not a guarantee that the wildfire season is going to be bad.”

Kravitz echoed this sentiment, noting, “This is an anomalous year that we’re just coming off of. We’re going to be talking about this one for a while.”

That being said, Schumacher said residents and visitors across the Roaring Fork Valley should be concerned about the potential of bad wildfires and take extra precautions to prevent them.

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“A lot of wildfires are started by people,” he said. “It’s important for people to be really cognizant in a year like this one, that they should be very cautious with fire.”

He added, “This is what we do, is pay attention to what’s happening. We’re here as a resource to help people put that in context and understand it.”

Reservations can be made directly on OpenTable for Pine Creek Cookhouse June 14 at opentable.com/r/pine-creek-cookhouse-aspen.

“I hope we can partner on future events on these issues, like climate and public lands,” Kravitz said. “We have been partnering with Aspen Ski Touring and Pine Creek Cookhouse going on 30 years now. It’s a really great relationship.”