Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey Jeff Davis · Feb 19, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Sunny and mild day in the mountains with light northwest wind. Band of clouds visible to the northwest that looked confined to the Telluride side of the mountains.
Snowpack
The upper snowpack is consolidating quickly and settling into a stiffer slab. Softer snow still exist on the surface on shadly slopes. Slopes that face east through south are forming a thin melt-freeze crust at near and below treeline elevations. We observed propagating failures on 26 taps in ECTs and loud, rumbling collapses on near treeline, northerly-facing slopes. We backed off our original travel objective due to collapsing on lower-angled slopes connected to steeper overhead terrain. With an abundance of soft snow near the surface, an uptick in strong winds will easily drift snow into thicker slabs and these could be reactive to a rider. The cascade affect of slides breaking near the surface triggering deeper slides remains a concern with our current stiff over soft snowpack structure.