Northern San Juan
AvalancheKrista Beyer · Feb 19, 2025 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Today was a warm-up day, so many southeast to south to southwest aspects were quickly heating a fresh 6.5 inches of snow from Tuesday. This fresh snow sits above a melt-freeze crust developed over a brief warm-up and sunshine Sunday into Monday.
Snowpack
On southeast near treeline slopes, fresh snow from Tuesday sits above a 3cm pencil-hard melt-freeze crust that developed on the surface of the Valentine's weekend storm. 29-32 cm of settled Valentine's weekend storm snow sits above a stout melt-freeze crust developed during our warm week of weather in early February. I received no propagating failures during pit tests. Nearby Red Mountain Pass picked up 2.1 inches of water corresponding to 29 inches of snow on 2/14 and 2/15 (and 2.9 inches of water between 2/14 and 2/19). Significantly less snow on this southeast slope illustrates wind transport and significant settlement of the storm slab Sunday into Monday. Warm temperatures those days may correspond to some movement of water through the snowpack prior to a much larger warmup this weekend. The jury is out on whether this initial warmup will suspend larger wet problems over the weekend with two crust layers that may act as a barrier to suspend and pool water.
Avalanche
I did not observe any avalanche activity this day, just some minor pinwheels from rocks on south slopes. I did get a better look at natural avalanche activity that likely occure 2/14 and/or 2/15.