Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Apr 1, 2023 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful spring day in the mountains with abundant sunshine, light winds, and a reprieve from wind loading at upper elevations.
Snowpack
We found 25 to 30 cm of new snow around 11,000 feet. This was about 10 to 15 cm less than what we found yesterday near the western crest of the range (a common discrepancy in the La Plata Mountains between the west to east crest). Strong winds before and at the onset of precipitation stiffened the old snow surface on northerly and easterly-facing slopes near and above treeline. We found a solid, robust crust on sunny slopes below the new snow at all elevations. The latest storm slab fell right-side-up and the denser snow (1F- hardness) at the bottom likely improved overall bonding at the new/ old snow interface. Only sheltered northerly-facing slopes below treeline had a thin, faceted layer of snow below the storm snow. The weight of the overlying slab is compressing this weak snow layer quickly and we did not observe any concerning results in quick/ hand pits. A snowpit on a north-facing slope at 11,500 yielded non-propagating results (ECTN 17 x 2) that broke in a 2 cm thick layer of decomposing fragments and near-surface facets (4F hardness) below the stiff wind layer. With several more taps, we observed another non-propagating result (ECTN 26) in a facet/ rounding facet layer (1F- hardness) that developed after the 3/20-23 storm event. The 3/20 interface sits over a meter deep below a 1F to P hard slab, and we did not perform snowpack test on this layer. On a sunnier note, we could tell the calendar flipped the page to April. The new snow got moist on sunny slopes but rollerballs struggled to entrain additional snow volume. Only the storm snow immediately above the crust (maybe 5 cm thick) remained dry. The crust below the moist snow was in tact and did not show evidence of softening - we limited travel on sunny slopes after midday. Despite the warm up and moist snow, we were surprised at how minimal the ski/ skin glop was in the afternoon. By the time we descended below 10,000 feet after 3 PM, sunny slopes started to corn up but did not turn punchy or rotten where we traveled.