Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey · Apr 7, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
A cold morning transitioned to a beautiful spring-like day. Temperatures warmed into the mid-30s near treeline. Winds were light with moderate gusts out of the southwest.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces were firm this morning at all elevations following last night's solid freeze. Moderate winds early in the day decreased to a light breeze midday, but steady winds aided in a slow surface thaw. Snow surfaces near and below treeline look tired and worked over. The top 4 to 5 inches of snow softened today on slopes facing east through south to west below treeline. Only the top 1 to 3 inches softened on similar aspects near and above treeline. By the afternoon, northerly-facing slopes at all elevations still had a frozen surface layer and was thicker, more stout at upper elevations. It was hard to find dry snow, even in the alpine, as recent warm temperatures have affected all but due north aspects. While exiting the mountains around 2 pm, we could still feel a refrozen layer below moist to wet surface snow on east to south aspects. Despite wet snow above a firm layer, we could not get any wet sluffs to move downhill while jumping on small test slopes at lower elevations. The snowpack did not have the same trap door feeling as recent days, but it did get punchier once we descended below about 10,000 feet.
Avalanche
No fresh Loose Wet or Wet Slab avalanche activity from today's warmup. However, lots of evidence of larger wet snow avalanches that most likely occurred on April 4 or 5.