Southern San Juan

Snowpack

Becs Hodgetts · Mar 3, 2021 · Southern San Juan

Weather

Clear with a light breeze keeping the snow surface cold.

Snowpack

I traveled on southerly slopes below and near treeline. Snow surfaces were mostly dry and cold, with a slight breeze keeping things from warming up. South slope HS ranged from 30cms to 160cms in wind -drifted areas. On the surface, supportive and unsupportive crusts were variable across slopes. These crusts were punctuated by soft areas of near- surface facets, so here, there is no uniform crust to form a slick bed surface. I dug on a northwest-facing near treeline slope at 11 600 feet. The persistent slab problem structure remains; however, this structure was unreactive in snowpack tests. ( ECTX ) Winds have sculpted 50-25cm thick wind drifts in exposed areas. These are difficult to affect with skis and are supportable to boots.