Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Overall, the snowpack remains thin and weak. Generally rotten all the way through in the deep trees/shady areas. These areas had little tension nor slab. Trap-door conditions. On sunnier slopes, new snow (~5-8 cm) was sitting on crusts that were 1-3 cm thick. These crusts have facets both above and below, making for a weak interface for the next load. Snow was thin and faceted to the ground below crusts. The most southerly of slopes are burning out to bare ground below treeline. New snow added an insignificant load, except in areas that are actively loading. Northerly winds were moving snow to southerly slopes at the highest elevations, likely forming some windslab up there. However lots of small sluffs from steep terrain (very low density snow). I expect we will see more of this with clear and warmer weather in the forecast. Lastly, lots of surface hoar on the surface in open areas. This will likely burn off of sunnier slopes, while persiting as yet another weak layer on shadier slopes...