Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Ann Mellick · Mar 7, 2011 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Lull in the storm. Unsettled and snowing at times, but not steadily.

Snowpack

Light winds overnight combined with low density (4%) new snow = storm snow generally not quite slab material below treeline. Staying soft in sheltered places, but beginning to form a wind skin or wind slab at surface in more exposed areas as wind speeds increased today. HN ~15"-24" with deeper drifts. New snow sluffed easily from skier's weight on steep slopes, taking Friday's settled storm snow with it. Sluffs or VERY soft slabs running on firm surface crusts left from prior warm weather. Not enough weight to dig down deeper...yet. Real problem will come as winds increase and/or warmer (denser) snow is deposited on top of all this very light snow. This began today, but only slight new snow accumulations during the day today.