Northern San Juan
SnowpackAmy Pertuz · Jan 22, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Two inches of new snow were capped with surface hoar up to 8mm, which remained intact in areas travelled with calm winds near and below tree line and cold temperatures. Saturday's NE winds were evident in the Red Mountain Pass corridor, with near and above tree line slopes showing wind loading out of this unusual direction.
Snowpack
The upper snowpack is showing signs of settling after a few days of warmer weather, and settlement cones were abundant. Surface hoar to 1cm was persisting into the middle part of the day with calm winds where I was, though I would not expect this to persist in sunnier or more open places. A couple inches of new snow and sparkly surface hoar was not enough to cover up the effects from Northeasterly winds on Saturday. Unusual locations in the RMP corridor had smooth wind-drifted features above tree line, and Northeast faces in the alpine were stripped and pressed in some places. The last week of storm snows sit atop a sun crust buried on January 14th. The thickness of this crust varied from stout to friable as you moved from south towards east-facing slopes. This crust was 74cm below the surface and had developed facets adjacent to it. Moderately hard results in compression tests and propagating failures in an ECT on this layer suggest it is worth paying attention to. Early-season facets remain within triggering depth about a meter below the surface in this location, but I was not able to impact this layer in Compression Tests or Extended Column Test.