Northern San Juan
SnowpackJeremy Yanko · Jan 20, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Very clear and generally calm in the alpine with a cold-humid feel.
Snowpack
Experienced knife hard wind-slabs, breakable wind crusts, supportable melt-freeze crusts and near surface facets under a stout mid pack slab. All surface varieties held a continuous coat of 3-4mm Surface Hoar that may be preserved enough prior to next shot of snow (1/21). Near surface facets are mixed in with SH in some low angle gulley features or close to rocky terrain. On both west and east the `5cm breakable wind crust is decomposing to more of 1F- hardness, however surfaces are erratic hovering around 12,500. Most wind dominated SW facing slopes outside of concave features, are bare or discontinuous with snow cover in the alpine. Found snowpack depths ranging from 70-240cm on W-NW-E-NE. Snow profile observed on a nearly due east facing slope at ~12k yielding no results with snowpack tests. The present surface conditions may prove to be touchy once a new cohesive slab is added.