Northern San Juan
SnowpackChris Dickson · Mar 26, 2025 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm sunny skies led to a pretty significant cloud build up, with large cumulus clouds covering half the sky by midday. Clouds fully blanketed the sky in early afternoon and some virga was observed. Temperatures quickly shot into the upper 40s in the morning.
Snowpack
The warm weather is settling and stiffening the snowpack. On mid to low elevation south-facing slopes, water has percolated through the entire snowpack. On easts and west, it's working it's way down steadily. I found moist grains on northeast and east-facing slopes near and below treeline, but the snowpack is still dry and cold on north-facing slopes above treeline. The most concerning snowpack I found was where I dug in a shallow spot on a high north, where the slab formed from Feb/March snow is thinner and resting above a dry layer of large-grained facets. I found snow depths ranging from 200-280cms near and above treeline.