Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Mark Gober · Mar 10, 2016 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

bluebird day. clear, calm and mild

Snowpack

There is a little less new snow from last storm in this area. Settled to 15-20cm and it has the large graupel that has been noted in other areas of NSJ at the bottom of the new snow. The underlying snowpack was the weakest I have seen on northerly aspects in the zone. There is a 2cm pencil hard dusty wind slab under new snow. With the graupel sitting on that layer, it will make for a poor bonding situation when the next storm arrives. Under this firm wind slab there was varying depths (60cm-150cm) of facets/depth hoar. Little to no mid-pack slab development. The snow above TL stayed cold and dry but upon reaching TL it was getting wet from the warm temps on north aspects.