This has been bothering me for awhile, and I've finally had enough of this nonsense. The newspaper doesn't tell people how cold it really gets up there, possibly because the tram doesn't want to see a decrease in ticket $ales. While this may sound like a "white lie" common to businesses, I have seen many children with cold hands and feet because their parents don't buy them gloves and boots.
Today the front page of the Desert Sun had this article:
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.d ... 7701150324
The Palm Springs Airport (~500 feet) recorded 24ºF Sunday morning. The tram is at 8,500 feet, but they said it only got down to 13ºF. As most mountain climbers know, there is approximately 3 to 5 degrees temperature drop for every 1,000 feet. I'm also wondering if this was just completely fabricated because the airport recorded 39ºF as the low this morning, but the tram web site said its low was 7ºF, which does sound like an accurate temperature difference.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KPSP.html
http://www.pstramway.com/cams-weather/w ... detail.asp
If anybody is up there, please ask the ranger station what the low was for Sunday morning/Saturday night... Granted, Long Valley (8,400 feet) is slightly colder than the tram because the cold air settles there, but that's where all the kids play in the snow, and difference is about 5 degrees at night when there's no sun.