Southern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Apr 7, 2023 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Warm and sunny with a few high clouds. The nearby Spud Mountain Snotel reported 41 degrees at the time of the observation (11 am).
Snowpack
West Lime (northeast aspect below treeline) still has a winter snowpack with a couple of thin crusts in the top 20 cm or so formed during recent warm-ups. Below these was 200+ cm of K- small rounds. The snowpack was dry, but there was evidence that water had penetrated the snowpack. I found two distinct ice masses, one down 63 cm, and the other down 80 cm. I was able to feel percolation columns above these layers with my crystal card. The snowpack in the Henry Brown path (southeast aspect below treeline) was much further along in the transition to a springtime isothermal snowpack. The dust/crust layer from early this week was already breaking down and was wet melt forms at 11 am. Below this, recent snows had consolidated into a 1f->K hard slab about 50 cm thick. Under this slab, was a thick layer of very moist 2mm melt forms with perc columns and ice masses mixed in. Hardness was variable, but averaged around 4f. I also observed many large perc columns in the upper slab layer.
Avalanche
No new activity observed today