Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Mar 24, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Obscured skies and light snowfall with maybe an inch of additional accumulation. Moderate southerly winds were gusty with brief periods of intense blowing snow. Lots of atypical cornice and drift formation observed from this morning's easterly winds.
Snowpack
The most recent storm snow on below treeline slopes was not slabby but soft and right-side-up (F to 4F). We observed good bonding with a variety of old snow surfaces at the new/ old interface. We did, however, easily trigger small loose dry sluffs with ski pressure on slopes over 35 degrees. They ran quickly down the slope where a firm crust was below. As we climbed higher to treeline, winds had stiffened the upper storm slab making it a little punchy and upside-down. This was mostly along ridgetops and slab formation quickly dissipated further down on slopes. Only isolated cracking in deeper drifts with some approaching 16 inches thick. Recent easterly winds built atypical drifts and swells in cross-loaded terrain features. Near-surface facets and faceted crust around 2 feet deep did not produce concerning results in stability test on a northeast aspect near treeline. Compression Test failed on 28 taps in a 1F- layer of rounding facets. This layer will need to be evaluated in the coming days if the snowpack receives a big, quick load from our next storm event.