Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Jan 27, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cold start to the day with sunny skies and light northwest wind. Around 2 pm, cloud cover developed but only the tallest peaks were starting to become obscured.
Snowpack
We traveled on north through east to southeast facing slopes below treeline. Snowfall from our recent storm cycle (1/19-26) was in the 2 foot range. We observed a talkative (lots of audible collapsing) snopwack on multiple aspects but the most widespread collapsing occurred on east and southeast-facing slopes with a buried faceted crust. We observed localized surface cracking primarily on slopes that approached 35 degrees. Snowpits on both an east and northeast aspect produced propagating failures in Extended Column Test with easy/ moderate force failing in large grain facets (4F to 4F-) below the storm slab. Fracture planes in both Compression Test and ECTs were clean and snappy. Combined with numerous rumbling collapses, we decided to avoid steep open areas especially above terrain traps and gully's.