Southern San Juan
SnowpackCasey Bristow · Jan 28, 2012 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Clear sky, light terrain driven winds generally out of the north. Warm in the sun on southerly aspects.
Snowpack
NW->N->NE->E aspects Above Tree Line were heavily scoured by Wed's strong NW wind. These locations presented hard wind slabs (1 meter thick in places) on the upper third of slopes below ridges. Dropping an available cornice (about 60 lbs) produced no results on one of these East aspects. It didn't make a mark on the upper slope surface and stopped moving in the natural deposition area for this slope. The further I descended down in these areas, I found pockets of softer wind transported snow in sheltered, easterly facing pockets in the slopes. Below Tree Line on these aspects I found the same scouring and hard surfaces in larger openings, and approx. 20+cm of soft, velvety snow in sheltered openings and in the trees. Southerly aspects Near Tree Line found steep slopes with a supportable, and very slick sun crust. While climbing in isolated pockets of softer wind transported snow in this area, the soft surface snow easily slid on the sun crust, and this made it difficult climb. While making a switchback in this situation (on a small open 33 SE degree pocket), the soft snow under my skis gave way and I slid about 8 feet on the sun crust until I could self arrest. This was in a very low consequence area. In one very isolated location in a NE facing, flat area of a paths lower track, well below tree line I found a collapse of a buried surface hoar layer that radiated about 10ft. Other than that single collapse, and the SE aspect on sun crust, I observed no other signs of instability.