Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Mar 4, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Light snow tapered off mid-morning and left us with broken skies, moderate southwest winds, and temperatures just above freezing by midday.
Snowpack
The past week of warm weather has really pushed us towards spring conditions. The snowpack at Coal Bank pass consisted of moist to wet melt-forms and rounds topped by a variable melt-freeze crust. Surface conditions ranged from a soft and moist supportable crust, to trap-door, to 70 cm boot penetration. HS at the study plot was 48", just ten inches more than than before last week's 38" storm. The surrounding steeper, southerly-facing slopes, were thin and patchy, with lots of bare spots and an average HS of around 12". The Henry Brown corner was similar. Even West Lime had been heavily affected by the warm weather. Runnels were visible in the snow indicating free-water infiltrating the snowpack. HS was 54". The surface was a soft melt-freeze crust several inches thick topping a solid slab of moist rounds. Boot pen was about 10 cm. Much of this path ran during the last storm and subsequent mitigation. Bed surfaces were much thinner, probably around 24" with some rocks and vegetation starting to poke through. East Lime was thin, crusty, patchy and isothermal. The center of this path, our biggest problem area, ran during the last storm, and has largely melted out.
Avalanche
No new activity observed