Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Rebecca Hodgetts · Jan 9, 2024 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Sun was slightly melting south-facing surfaces below treeline.15F, and gusty winds kept things invigorating, drifting snow into paths. Lots of periods with no wind also. Clouds built slowly through the afternoon.

Snowpack

Northerly slopes below treeline are still very thin, with an average snow depth of 60cm. A weak 4F mid-pack slab is sandwiched between two fist hard layers, and the entire snowpack is comprised of facets in different stages of evolution. Moving on to more southerly slopes, the snow cover changes to 0-20cm deep, and even today's sun was moistening the snow surface (you were right, Troy). Any below treeline slope that was exposed to the wind had a soft wind slab up to 20cm thick at the surface. These small slabs were unreactive besides some surface cracking with ski pressure. Moving to near and above treeline. The ridge was blown mostly clean and slopes were loading well into start zones. Wind Slabs were soft near treeline, but appeared to be more isolated and had a hardened look above treeline (big smooth looking pillows between bare rocks). We dug on a southeast facing near treeline slope. Snow depth was 58cm, with 12cm of recent snow sitting on a 1F hard melt-freeze crust that easily crumbled between your fingers. We could repeat ECTP1 at the crust/new snow interface. There was localized cracking on this crust layer as we moved around the slope. We were able to coax a small sluff from a steeper roll, with no other signs of instability.