Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Mar 10, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful late winter day in the San Juan's with sunny skies, warm temperatures, and generally light winds.
Snowpack
Despite this area receiving over 3" SWE in three days during our last storm, we could not find evidence of a natural cycle in the part of the range where we traveled. The snowpack continues to get deeper with some areas almost 3 meters deep. We found multiple crust and rounding near-surface facet layers in the top meter of the snowpack, but none were reactive in ECTs on multiple aspects - dug pits on NE, E, and SE aspects below and at treeline. At treeline, PWLs near the ground are now buried over 2.5 meters deep. Although we didn't find clear evidence pointing to instability, being one day out from the end of a historic avalanche cycle made us travel with a conservative mind-set. Many slopes in this area have slid this season and the consequences of finding the right trigger spot out-weighted the reward for our group. Trying to determine the extent of previous avalanches is also too difficult if not impossible now that snow coverage is consistent across all elevations. Will need to see if the next loading event this week is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Moving into spring, this zone could become reactive during warming periods with such a deep snowpack and known weak layers near the ground. We got our first taste of potential wet snow problems last week in Shaw Creek with one day of warm weather following a significant storm.