Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Susan Hale · Mar 9, 2013 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Light snow falling (limited visibility). Temps mid 20's. Breezy northerly winds.

Snowpack

Southerly slopes only 4-5 inches new on old strong/supportive crust. Northerly slopes 6-8 inches new bonded well to firm base underneath > On SE aspect at treeline - old surface crust 4-5cm thick. The snowpack structure here was similar to a below-TL SE pit previous day. Differences were: (1) individual crusts were only slightly thinner; (2) 1F snow between crusts was also thinner and each were riddled with perk tubes - all linking together a very stout upper pack; (3) Pack was not nearly as moist. HS was 130cm. The stout crust-sandwich-combo was roughly 70cm thick. below that was 10-15cm strong 1F that tapered to 4F old DH. > Exited down N aspect below TL - found very strong deep mid-pack here - over a meter. new snow adhered to old well in open glade slopes. However, did notice more slab quality to new snow on more open, wind affected or drifted slopes of the same aspect - with only a bit of cracking under foot - this was variable/isolated enough to reduce concerns.