Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Overall: variable, thin and weak. Near and above treeline areas got beat down by yesterday's strong northerly winds. Open areas below treeline were effected as well, though to a lesser degree. No aspect seemed to escape the wind. Even windward, northerly slopes are wind stiffened with varying degrees of hard slab on the surface. Overall, slabs are ~2"-6", some supportive, some breakable and very terrain dependent- lots of cross loading and drifting behind terrain features. Lots of drummy slab above treeline. However, slabs are generally not contiguous- pockety in nature. Slabs rest on a variety of older wind slabs and facets above treeline and mostly just on large-grained facets below treeline. Warming continues to trigger loose sluffs out of steep rocky terrain- all aspects and elevations. Some of these slides are long-running and some gouge down to the ground. While not a problem now, they are an indicator of how weak the underlying snow is (turbinado sugar).