Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Apr 5, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
A very warm and mostly sunny day. A few big cumulus clouds were gathering in the afternoon. Winds were gusty and stronger in the afternoon than earlier in the day. Some spotty and intermittent wind loading in the alpine.
Snowpack
The snowpack in our highway paths is adjusting well to the warmer weather. Crusts have formed up to about 11,000 feet and today's warm temperatures and sun were not enough to break these crusts down. Most areas just had an inch or two of wet snow at the surface, and a stout, supportable crust or P hard moist rounds below this. Blue Point is crusted over and was mostly unaffected by today's warm temperatures. The Brooklyns are still holding a lot of snow, but starting to transition to spring. Crusts have formed in the past 48 hours, likely putting an end to loose activity here. Southerly facing slopes like the Ledges, Henry Brown and East Lime are almost melted out. West Lime is still holding about 3 feet of snow. The Jenny Parkers and the Champion area are losing a lot of volume, and the upper layers have been saturated with melt water. Near-surface layers appear to be draining well in general, and I didn't observe any new loose wet activity today in highway paths or in the surrounding terrain.
Avalanche
No new activity observed today.