Northern San Juan
SnowpackJeff Davis · Apr 15, 2016 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Snowfall accelerated around 1pm and has continued ever since. Daytime accumulations were around 6 inches by 4:00pm. Winds were light near and below treeline. Due to thick clouds high mountain peaks were only seen intermittently. Temperatures were warm.
Snowpack
The new snow ranged from 2-6 inches depending on elevation. The higher on the ridge we traveled the more snow that was accumulating. The new snow is falling on a spring-like snowpack. At lower elevations the snowpack continues not to freeze and even while on my skis I was able to penetrate to the ground. Near and above treeline the top 10 to 20 cm of the snowpack have refrozen creating a nice planner sliding surface for the new snow to sluff. Today it was easy to trigger a soft slab avalanche on steep slopes. The new snow was able to propagate long distances and run far down the slope. The Slides triggered were relatively harmless due to volume. This will change over night with continued precipitation.