200 Inches of Snow

Before we moved to Holden Village, I was unsure how I would handle living in 300 - 500 inches of snow. The prospects of little direct sunlight and 25 feet of snow chilled some of my enthusiasm for the year. I sought the advise of many people who had experienced winters here before and most had no issues at all. I was still unconvinced so I said a prayer for a less than normal snow year. About mid December, when we had not had much snow at all I realised my prayer may have had some power. I came clean to our utilities staff and they made me recant my prayer.

As I lived through the winter, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the the lack of direct sunlight did not bother me. Each day the sun lit up the mountains all around us and the beauty of it all kept my spirits high. At noon, many of us would take a break on the loading dock and soak up the direct sun while it shown between Buckskin and Copper Mountains.

Now that we are in mid-March, our snow level is at 196.1 inches and the forecast is for ten inches tonight. If we can pass 200 inches, this will be considered an average year for snowfall.  The mountain snow is so important to Washington State because it feeds so many things. Irrigation, forest vegetation, summer recreation and many other vial aspects all depend upon the snow pack. Our 200 plus inches of snow this winter has also soaked up over 9 inches of rain. This additional water is held as ice waiting for the weather to warm up so it can be released into the creeks.

Holden's electricity is provided by a hydro plant off of Copper Creek. Right now we are at the lowest point of the year. The village power goes out at least once per day. If you turn on an oven, a hair dryer, even this computer can take down the power for the entire village. Each item we use takes electric power away from some other part of the village. We stage our cooking, dish washing, vacuuming and clothes washers so we all have power to use. In the evenings, Art and I read by individual reading lights. The one by my bed is battery powered. No fully lit rooms here and we never leave the lights on when we leave the chalet.

When we leave Holden, I hope I can carry with me some of the practices that we have learned. Many of the changes in our life have been totally painless for us and will be easy to adopt. I hope to talk about more of our "rebirthing" to back to the real world in later posts.