Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Zach Taylor · Apr 23, 2011 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

moderate snowfall rates at treeline, w/ strong ridgetop winds in the mid 30 mph range, difficult but not impossible to walk in at treeline on the ridgeline. My snowboard felt like a sail in all the wind. Cloud line was around 12,000' most of the day, mostly cloudy.

Snowpack

Rapid windloading was occuring on this slope. We were watching this north facing slide path getting toploaded from the other side. 5-6" of new snow in the upper part of the slide path. Seemed to be bonding pretty well. We were scraping sticky snow off our boards/skis before dropping in. Observed no new avalanche activity in the area today. Even though the new snow seemed to be binding well I would be wary of the same slope tomorrow if we continue to see more snowfall and similar winds.