Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Susan Hale Ann Mellick · Mar 5, 2013 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Clear, mild day following a brief, but intense little storm from previous 24 hours. Evidence that strong westerly winds during the storm moved significant amounts of snow near and above TL. Cornice and drift formations increased dramatically in favorable lee aspects. Temperatures rose significantly today from this morning's frigid post storm numbers.

Snowpack

A mish-mash of spring-like, post storm snow surfaces - cold powder to "hot powder" and lots of gobbing skis. North aspects already had faceting surfaces. On some sheltered north aspects, the snowpack was deep, weak, faceted snow top to bottom. Probing revealed a snowpack over 4.5 ft deep and easy to push through - not as bad as early season, but still mostly facets except for a stiffer layer beneath the newest snow. On a more NNW aspect, the snowpack consisted of new snow on a 1 meter firm (1F) midpack, sitting on 20+ cm of depth hoar.