Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Jeremy Yanko · Jan 4, 2022 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Blustery at times, darkening skies to the north and relatively mild

Snowpack

Returned to the valley that some call a "snow dessert" in the Animas River drainage. Initially traveled on a N/NW aspect from 10-10,500K. Found the conditions to have a "trap door powder" feel. Hand shears and hasty pits revealed an HS 77cm with a ~50cm slab perched on a 1F- crust at 28cm with rounding facets below. It took moderate pressure to detach the slab from the crust. Merged onto a S/SW aspect for the primary up route finding a nice breakable 1F crust on skis. A very thin layer of near surface facets is present at this location today (1/4) below 11k. HS 60cm comprised of 3 MFcr's with moist facets in between each crust layer. I found no cracking ,collapsing or signs of instability while kicking on wind loaded pillows or applying weight to various test slopes along the way. I selected a snowpit site NTL on a NW facing aspect at ~11,600ft finding a fragile HS 105cm with 6 identifiable layers. The snowpack tests were performed on a 40 degree slope yielding 2 poor compression test scores (CT3/CT7 SC). Additionally an ETCN#28 was observed. All tests failed on the prevalent October faceted crust 75cm down from the surface. This weak layer is still a major player in this valley as it is not buried well over 100 cm's as seen in other locations in the NSJ.