Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Mar 3, 2020 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Abundant sunshine and warm temperatures. Moderate northeast wind during the morning kicked off snow plumes mostly in northern half of the range. By mid-day, winds decreased and the light breeze above treeline kept most snow surfaces from getting too sloppy.
Snowpack
Around 3 inches of new snow accumulated from our last storm cycle. Strong north winds easily redistributed the new snow with softest surface conditions found on lower-angled slopes, in protected terrain features, or in big open flat meadows. Majority of near and above treeline slopes are a mixture of wind-board, sastrugi, and very isolated pockets of shallow wind-drifted slabs above a variety of firm, old snow surfaces. Larger slopes on the highest peaks look to have the most widespread drifting. East through south to west-facing slopes have multiple melt-freeze crust near the surface. At present, it seems like we'll need a big warm-up to break down those crust and promote vertical water movement into weaker near-surface facets. All slopes below treeline have become weak and rotten with some below-below treeline slopes (< 9,500 feet) starting to melt out to bare ground and vegetation. Corn snow conditions were found on southerly-facing slopes around the timber line by late afternoon, but a light steady breeze kept snow surfaces from getting to wet and sloppy. Sunny slopes didn't produce loose-wet slides on this day, and small rollerballs from steep, rocky terrain was the only evidence we observed of surface heating.