Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Apr 4, 2019 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Rapid warm-up after a chilly morning. High thin clouds were moving in by late morning, and were covering most of the sky by the time I finished my observation.
Snowpack
A deep, solid snowpack. Layering and hardness becoming fairly homogenous. The upper 100 cm of the snowpack is P-K hard rounds with a variety of ice masses and melt-freeze crusts, topped by softer layers from our recent snows. No persistent grain forms or weak layers observed. Water has been percolating into the snowpack, and drainage channels have been established to about 80 cm down. Weaker snow can still be felt near the ground by probing, but it is a long ways down there. Snow temperatures were -1 from near the surface to the bottom of my pit. The upper snowpack is on the verge of going isothermal, and melting and melt water percolation will accelerate with the forecast warm-up. Some of our low-elevation, south-facing paths on Molas and Coal Bank passes may see complete saturation of the snowpack in the next 120 hours.
Avalanche
A few tiny sluffs to the edge of the road confined to yesterday's snow.