Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Feb 7, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cold, bluebird day with moderate to strong winds near and above treeline. Below treeline, winds were generally light with occasional moderate gusts. Lots of snow banners off higher peaks loading easterly and southerly slopes near and above treeline. Found 17 to 20 inches of new snow since 2/3/19.
Snowpack
Storm snow was right-side-up and showed generally good bonding with the old snow interface using small test slopes. Storm slab hardness (top to bottom) was F to 4F to 1F-. Noticed some isolated surface cracks within the new snow along ridges and on slopes loaded by southwest winds. ECTs in multiple snowpits on both east and northeast-facing slopes produced propagating results in near-surface facts and below a faceted crust that formed during our recent dry spell. On slopes that didn't avalanche during the mid-January cycle, facets and depth hoar near the ground are now buried under 1.25 to 1.5 meters and showing signs of rounding. We did not observe any failures in isolated column test in deeper persistent weak layers.