Playa surface conditions for 2016

[Elliot]

This... in the spirit of the similar topic for last year....

A friend and sometime-Burner just asked me the "depth of Lake Lahontan". He means "Is there any standing water on the Black Rock Desert" -- Lake Lahontan being the essentially extinct lake at that location.

Winter conditions have a considerable influence on the August Playa surface.

Generally, water compacts the soil, giving us a more solid and less dusty surface for the Event. I'm no expert, but the weight of standing water is one factor. So we cheer when Lake Lahontan rises from the dust this time of year.

Frost also plays in. There are times when frost is beneficial, and times when it is not. I forget the details. Someone here will soon fill us in.

Summer rain can pack down a loose surface to some extent, as we may have benefited from the last couple years. But that's in the distant future.

So.... With the recent "good" weather, is Lake Lahontan navigable now?

[Captain Goddammit]

[Elliot]

Love it! I didn't know you are a computer wizard also.

[motskyroonmatick]

Hahahahaha! That's awesome Captain!

[Ratty]

Yeah. That is great. You make me laugh. (Laughter is the best gift of all.)

[Captain Goddammit]

Credit for the gif goes to Canoe, he made it!

[DoctorIknow]

We don't need no stinkin' playa!
Let's move this thing to Bolivia and have even more problems with our "flat space!"
[attachment=0]salt flats.JPG[/attachment]

[Elliot]

In 1997 I spent a week on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Well... only the days. We were not allowed to camp there, so everybody stayed in Wendover. But dawn to dusk.

The salt is a great surface to walk on and such. It does not become dust. Even when a race car accelerates with 2000 horse power and goes by at 300 miles per hour, it kicks up no dust. It does kick up salt, and the stuff sticks to the car in areas that are in line with the tires, but that's it.

Rain, however, stops all activity. And I'm under the impression that the water dries far slower than on our playa. A shower can cancel racing for a couple days. Of course, race cars have very different requirements for safe operation.
I never set foot on the salt when it was wet, so I don't know if the area would still be usable for a Burning Man type event. Perhaps it would be possible to move about as if in a shallow wading pool. Might be worth looking into.

[Captain Goddammit]

Problem is what you mentioned, they don't allow overnighting on the salt.
The playa is corrosive enough, I believe the salt is far worse.
However, showing up at Bonneville for Speed Week is something I've always wanted to do. If I ever do, maybe you can come with me, we'd have a ball!

[FIGJAM]

Will it be a 2000hp ball and how fast will it go???

[Simon of the Playa]

mark my fucking words.

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[AntiM]

In 1997 I spent a week on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Well... only the days. We were not allowed to camp there, so everybody stayed in Wendover. But dawn to dusk.

The salt is a great surface to walk on and such. It does not become dust. Even when a race car accelerates with 2000 horse power and goes by at 300 miles per hour, it kicks up no dust. It does kick up salt, and the stuff sticks to the car in areas that are in line with the tires, but that's it.

Rain, however, stops all activity. And I'm under the impression that the water dries far slower than on our playa. A shower can cancel racing for a couple days. Of course, race cars have very different requirements for safe operation.
I never set foot on the salt when it was wet, so I don't know if the area would still be usable for a Burning Man type event. Perhaps it would be possible to move about as if in a shallow wading pool. Might be worth looking into.

They try to close it off when it gets really wet, as traffic of any kind destroys the salt crust. The flats without the salt are just huge mucky mud flats. Speed week has been cancelled a couple years in a row. The hardest part would be getting BLM to approve camping on the flats. Never been allowed historically, so it would be an uphill battle. Also, far too close to I-15. There's place in the West Desert better suited to the event.

[Elliot]

Yes, I saw spots at the far end of the race course where the salt crust had cracked and chunks of it peeled up, revealing that the crust was only about 1/2 inch thick, and below was pure brown mud. (I have photos but would have to scan one.)

You are probably thinking of I-80. The racing area I'm familiar with begins more or less within sight of I-80.

I have no recent information, but around 1997 the "big deal" was that an effort was underway to return salt to the surface. What? With magic? Sending a purchase order to God? Not quite. Unknown to most folks, salt has been removed for decades for the purpose of extracting certain minerals (or some such) from the salt. But they did not bother to return the rest of the salt whence it came. They just piled it up somewhere convenient.

The new campaign was to mix that salt with water and pump it onto the flats, where gravity spread it out and the sun removed the water. What I don't know is what progress may have been made. (I expect it is easy enough to find out.)

But since AntiM informs us the crust becomes soft from a good rain-shower, none of this is of much interest to us Burners. (In 1997 Speed Week was suspended for a day or two around the middle of the week because of a shower.)

So... back to Lake Lahontan.

[AntiM]

Oh geez, yes, I-80. Been over that stretch a hundred times. I probably had my comment about Roach Lake south of Vegas in mind. There were 911 calls from motorists on I-15 about our fires and explosions during Dark Skies. It would be the same for I-80 and the Salt Flats.

[Elliot]

The same? Just the Man Burn alone within sight of an Interstate would likely shut down that highway for days. People would stop to watch, others would crash into them, and so on.

[uncle sticky]

Well....I can say that Reno has had more snow in December than it has had for the last four years combined. I don't know if that's actually true, but I can definitely say it, and feel pretty good about it. Playa is going to be hard, flat, and full of people punching out their bucket lists.

[lucky420]

It's true^^ and we are super happy about it

[lucky420]

Saw a pic today of the playa (today's date) and it was covered it's a blanket of white

[maladroit]

Playa is going to be hard, flat, and full of people punching out their bucket lists.

Not guaranteed, and the sparkle herd spent all of last year either huddling in their RVs or breathing dirt while freezing their nips off. Considering that a large fraction of the yearly population turns over each year, there may be less "OMG u should come next year!!!!" enthusiasm.

[tatonka]

Saw a pic today of the playa (today's date) and it was covered it's a blanket of white

this is the one I seen on BM facebook page

[lucky420]

Yes, thanks tatonka

[Token]

It ain't the snow or rain or depth that compacts the surface.

It's the freeze-thaw cycles and evaporation rate that sets the crust.

Gotta wait for spring before divining surface conditions based on hard-freeze events.

[vargaso]

In 1997 I spent a week on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Well... only the days. We were not allowed to camp there, so everybody stayed in Wendover. But dawn to dusk.

The salt is a great surface to walk on and such. It does not become dust. Even when a race car accelerates with 2000 horse power and goes by at 300 miles per hour, it kicks up no dust. It does kick up salt, and the stuff sticks to the car in areas that are in line with the tires, but that's it.

Rain, however, stops all activity. And I'm under the impression that the water dries far slower than on our playa. A shower can cancel racing for a couple days. Of course, race cars have very different requirements for safe operation.
I never set foot on the salt when it was wet, so I don't know if the area would still be usable for a Burning Man type event. Perhaps it would be possible to move about as if in a shallow wading pool. Might be worth looking into.

On our way back from our every-other-year trip out to SLC for Thanksgiving this year, we stopped at the rest stop overlooking the Bonneville flats and it was a giant, glassy lake. This was 2 days after it had last rained, so yes, the water sticks around for awhile.

[FlyingMonkey]

We don't need no stinkin' playa!
Let's move this thing to Bolivia and have even more problems with our "flat space!"

salt flats.JPG

Lets go. It's a bit of a drive but well worth it.

BM2016.jpg

[Simon of the Playa]

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