Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Ann Mellick · Jan 18, 2013 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Clear and mild with almost no wind.

Snowpack

Under a stagnant weather pattern, the snowpack is not changing very rapidly (with exception to very sunny slopes, especially at lower elevations). Tuesday's ferocious north winds scoured many areas near and above treeline. Ample sculpting, cross loading and hard wind slabs of variable thickness left in the high country. Lots of snow simply blew away in Tuesday's event. Slabs are localized (pockety) near treeline and more contiguous above treeline. However, many terrain features are perforating the larger slabs as well (due to the overall thin snowpack) keeping the potential of very large slides down. Hard slabs dominate near and above treeline. While these are becoming harder to trigger, they are perched on very weak faceted snow and may be triggered from well below the start zone. These slabs may be deep (though more likely triggered from area where slab thins). Wind slabs can be found on all aspects in the alpine.