Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Feb 7, 2023 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Calm winds and pleasant temperatures. An occasional light breeze at upper elevations.
Snowpack
We found about 10 cm (4 inches) of new snow around 11,000 feet from the latest storm. New snow amounts were not enough to change overall avalanche conditions. Strong northerly winds Monday created variable surface conditions in the alpine while near and below treeline slopes had little effect from the wind. Below the new snow on northerly aspects near and below the treeline, the snow has begun to facet. If cold and clear conditions persist, the new snow could follow suit and facet making a deeper pile of cohesionless snow on the surface. Probing on a northwest-facing slope from 11,500 to 11,600 feet snow depths ranged from 135 to 165 cm, and November facets were buried around 105 to 115 cm. While these depths help reduce the likelihood to initiate a failure in deeper weak grains, they are shallower than other areas we've traveled to in recent weeks and flirting with the margin of rider-trigger ability. Compression Tests yielded sudden collapse failures at two near-surface facet interfaces in the top 30 cm from the surface, and no results in 1F- hard rounding facet layers around 60 and 70 cm respectively in a snowpit on a north-facing slope at 11,900 feet. Despite sunny skies, the snow surface on all but southerly slopes remained cold and soft.