Northern San Juan
SnowpackJewel Campbell Danielle Snyder · Mar 10, 2025 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Clear skies and intense sun, by early afternoon temps were in the 40s. No breeze on sheltered NE slopes
Snowpack
We found widespread surface crusts on east and southeast aspects which were largely melting by early afternoon on open slopes. These aspects were wet and our skis were sinking in the snow about 1'. We saw several small avalanches from the storm slab avalanche cycle on Thursday last week and one of them stepped down through the Valentine's storm. The northeast slope where we dug a snow pit was sheltered and covered in surface hoar. Overall the snowpack was comprised of two dense slabs resting on two melt-freeze crusts with faceting over and underneath. We had moderate propagating results in propagation saw tests on top of each of the crusts. Both crusts were softer and more faceted than we found in northeast snowpits over the last few days. The lower slab from the Valentine's storm is in a rounding regime while the upper slab from the Ash Wednesday storm had mixed forms (very small facets and broken stellars).