Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Susan Hale · Mar 29, 2012 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Mild. Warm with light, westerly winds. Seemed generally cooler than yesterday. (Note: Overnight temps were a couple of deg cooler than previous night.)

Snowpack

Started climbing around 10am on westerly aspect and snow remained firm to the top. On NW-W aspects near and below treeline, surfaces had just begun to soften slightly by noon. All-in-all upper slab was very firm, supportive. Below treeline, saw lots of evidence of an earlier wet-slab cycle on steep northerly aspects (crowns and old fractures where glide cracks opened then stopped on lower angle slopes - interesting.) All of this sort of activity has slowed with the recent cooler temps and colder nights - but we continue to lose a shocking amount of snow daily. March is the new April. Last couple of days seeing a lot of bold lines on high northerly aspects - first time this season.