Southern San Juan
SnowpackJeff Davis & Alex Haddad · Mar 26, 2025 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Beach morning with some clouds building in the afternoon.
Snowpack
After a few downright hot days, the snowpack in the Wolf Creek area feels like late April vs late March. Even with a weaker overnight freeze, the clear sky helped with radiational cooling, and the snowpack's surface was refrozen at pass level. This surface crust quickly broke down as the sun shined and temperatures rose. Widespread dust obesred on many surfaces. Digging on a northerly but mostly flat slope around 11,700 feet, water has percolated into the top 30- 40 cm of the snowpack and pooled on the 3/13 and 2/14 weak layers. Cold, weak, faceted snow still lurks under a few harder layers, and water has not yet reached the layer of concern for Wet Slab potential, but this snowpack setup is specific to mostly high northerly slopes. On a more easterly slope, probing with a ski pole did not highlight the same hard layer of snow. Leaving the backcountry around 1 pm, areas below treeline were hollow and had trap-door conditions.