Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Bilbrey · Apr 1, 2024 · Southern San Juan

Weather

Bluebird to start, then clouds moved in late-morning with off and on snow showers that did not amount to much accumulation. Pokes of sunshine made it feel much warmer quickly. Light northerly wind with moderate gusts along ridgelines. Light drifting onto leeward slopes, mostly above 12,000 feet.

Snowpack

New snow totals ranged 8 to 10 inches around 12,000 feet, and drifts 18 to 24 inches deep. Surprisingly, only an inch of new snow accumulation on CR 124 at the Columbus Basin road. No cracking or collapsing noted on our travels - even above a hard melt-freeze crust on sunny aspects. Probing across northerly aspects near and above treeline, it was difficult to discern obvious weak snow layers in the upper snowpack. Quick pits revealed a couple of thin, faceted layers. While these grains are more angular than round, they don't have notable hardness differences to the layers above or below. We did not dig below the St. Patrick's Day storm cycle, and it was hard to poke our poles through that slab. Warm, sunny weather between storms has formed stout crust on east through south to west aspects at all elevations. Even there, the new snow was not reactive to ski pressure. This could change as the new snow softens on the next warm, sunny day. Below these crust are weaker, re-frozen melt forms that likely won't come back into play till we get another push of meltwater into the snowpack. Snow totals were shallowest on south and southwest aspects, and the new snow settled quickly under the sun's influence.

Avalanche

Pretty quiet on the avalanche front. We did not see any notable crowns from the last couple of storms. A couple of large, deep crowns from the St Patrick's Day storm cycle still visible above treeline, but filling in. Minor loose sluffing/ roller-balling of the new snow on southerly aspects likely triggered by brief moments of sunshine today. These were small and generally harmless, and originated from steep, rocky areas. We triggered one small loose snow sluff on a north-aspect around 12,500 feet. The sluff did not do much more than go downhill slowly.