Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Dug a hasty pit at treeline on NW aspect of peak 12450 N of Snowdon and S of Kendal. Snow pack was very variable, we found a pencil hard wind slab at our first dig site but when we moved five feet to the right (south) to avoid a buried log the slab had dissapered. We performed two compression tests and both times had results of CT 2, with the failure happening near the surface with Q3 characteristics. Additionally the fracture did not propagate through the entire 30 cm column but stayed isolated to a small section about 5 cm across. Additionally we noticed that in both locations ( the one with a wind slab and the one where we performed the compression tests) the basal facets had begun to round and we even saw small amounts of sintering. Aspect: NW Elevation: Near treeline