Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Mar 21, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm and sunny with a few stray clouds in the morning. Clouds began to build after midday. Winds were light from the northwest with no visible signs of transport in the higher terrain.
Snowpack
The snowpack is starting to transition to spring here, although the snow is still cold, and resisting transformation to melt forms with the exception of surface crusts. Water has percolated deep into the snowpack. I found ice columns and ice masses throughout the upper 65 cm. Isolated columns with small pools below reached as far as 80 cm into the snowpack, but the majority of pooling water was collecting on top of a knife-hard layer of rounds about 65 cm down from the surface. The crusts in the upper snowpack were moist and relatively soft, boot pen was about 30 cm. The facet/crust layer formed in February is still easy to spot in a profile, although the facets are rounding and 1f hard, and have been unreactive to tests for some time. This layer will be a concern when the snowpack begins to be saturated with melt water in the coming weeks. A thin layer of rounding depth hoar is at the base of the snowpack, also 1f hard and not surprisingly, unreactive to tap tests, like the ECT and CT.
Avalanche
Shedding in the recent snow continues each afternoon. There were many new slides in the near and below treeline bands, with fewer above treeline. All were small to medium sized D1's