Northern San Juan
SnowpackJeremy Yanko · Mar 7, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Still windy and a bit warmer than yesterday
Snowpack
Traveled on Easterly aspects below and near treeline. Current surfaces offered an array of mixed conditions. Found a robust 5" melt-freeze crust on SE btl that was still supportive upon exiting the area close to 1pm. Trending toward the more easterly aspect at the lower elevations, one could find a 1" breakable crust siting ontop of moist rounds below. Moving over to the shadier side of east, some near-surface faceting grains have developed into a thin layer for now. Probing around along the route I found snow heights to be quite variable with scoured benches measuring at 40cm to deposition features holding up to 260cm. The average HS in the Top dead center start zone (still intact) of Blue Point sits at 170cm. The SE facing side of the start zone is a MFcr crust layer cake measuring at 120cm. There are two cornices that are looming off the ridge of the path which are in need of some reduction work soon. The upper cornice is ~980cm wide and liken it to the size of a station wagon. The lower cornice is 800cm wide with a more gravity influenced overhang. It may be optimal to work the cornice simultaneously with the next loading event here in 3 days, provided the WX forecast verifies. A hearty 4F-1F 65cm slab sits over some recovering facets buried mid last month. Snowpack test scores yielded stubborn results but this layer only sits at half the optimal depth and cause of concern if and when we receive another solid storm with ~1.75" SWE?