Northern San Juan
SnowpackMike Bromberg · Dec 17, 2011 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Calm winds at ridgetop with strong solar radiation.
Snowpack
Traveling on a variety of aspects at and above treeline we observed many different characteristics. On an East aspect dropping into Prospect Gulch we observed no signs of instability and a generally more supportive snowpack. Ascending the South Ridge of Red 3 we observed a major collapse on the ridgeline and felt generally uncomfortable with some localized windloading. Overall, the upper snowpack in the At and Above treeline zones seemed to be gaining cohesion (my feeling is for the worse) and all solar aspects had developed a crust by the end of the day. Below treeline in Dry Gulch, we observed an extremely weak faceted snowpack, this paired with the tight features certainly contributed to the severity of that terrain. In general I felt the snowpack to be certainly very spooky necessitating very careful terrain selection, favoring the most uniform slope configuration and paying careful attention to loading patterns.