Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Jan 16, 2023 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Steady snowfall varying in intensity. Around 4 inches of new snow accumulated from 11 am to 4 pm at the valley bottom. Light winds along below treeline ridgetops.
Snowpack
Traveled on southeast through south-to-west-facing slopes below treeline to see how well the storm snow was bonding to the buried crust. Snow accumulations ranged from 15 to 20 inches in the valley bottom to around 9,000 feet and over two feet above 10,000 feet. A snowpit on a west-facing slope identified three storm interfaces that are likely to become touchy from additional snow load. Easy to moderate sudden collapse failures occurred in Compression Test in the top 30 cm and another directly above the old crusted snow surface with 17 taps. The top 6 to 8 inches of F-hard snow became more reactive on steeper slopes the higher we climbed. We initiated loose snow sluffs and a few broke as shallow soft slabs while descending a treed south-facing slope. The soft slabs failed in areas where slope angles approached 35 degrees. We also initiated slope-wide En Echelon cracks on a similar slope.