Northern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Mar 27, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful late-winter/ early-spring day in the mountains. Scattered cumulus clouds combined with light westerly wind kept air temperatures in check. A stray, random snow shower midday didn't provide any measurable accumulations.
Snowpack
The right-side-up storm slab from earlier in the week continues to settle, consolidate, and become more stubborn to human triggers. The strong spring sun is promoting faster settlement on sunny slopes versus shaded areas. Where we found around 14 inches on a northerly aspect, there was about 7 inches on a southerly aspect at the same elevation. Snowpits on multiple aspects and elevations did not produce concerning results at the n/o interface. Probing on east through south to west-facing slopes, we could feel a hard crust layer below. This old, crusted surface was thinner and more breakable on northwest and northeast aspects. There, faceting below was more pronounced but still lacks softness or thickness to pose much hazard at this time. The FC layer was mostly 4F, and the lower part of the storm slab above was 1F or 1F-. During this period of spring-time "assessment", deeper wind-drifted pockets of snow appear to be the primary avalanche problem to manage. Where we did find reactive storm snow to weight of a rider, the avalanche triggered did not break wide or deep, but traveled quickly down the slope entraining more snow volume. A good reminder to evaluate what terrain is below you before stepping out into steeper terrain.