Southern San Juan

Snowpack

Krista Beyer · Dec 31, 2024 · Southern San Juan

View on map
Observation photo 1Observation photo 2Observation photo 3Observation photo 4

Weather

Blue skies and sunshine are back on the menu after a fairly cloudy and stormy week. Temperatures were around 25 degrees at 10,600ft and calm winds made for a pleasant morning. Around 18 inches of snow accumulation was measured on Coal Bank Pass since December 25th.

Snowpack

New snow sits on top of weak facets on north slopes just like the rest of the San Juan Mountains. I dug below treeline to continue tracking the sensitivity of our Persistent Slab avalanche problem at lower elevations. I found around 30 cm of recent snow sitting above 80cm of faceted old snow. I observed easy non-propagating failures at the new/old interface. Although weak and fully faceted, a "right-side-up" structure is maintained in the old snow.