Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Hi, I am a guide working for Southwest Adventure Guides and wanted to relay our test pit observations from our Level 1 Avalanche class today. Our test pit was dug in the Little Molas Lake area, on a NE aspect at 10970', on a 22 degree slope. We found a total snow depth of 133cm with a significant developing layer of surface hoar. UPPER: The upper snow pack was roughly 80cm and comprised mostly of decomposing fragments. We had repeatable reactions to compression tests on layers 30cm & 45cm below the surface. Both of these interfaces were hard to initiate (CT21&22) and resulted in Q1 and Q2 sheers. MID: Roughly 80cm down we found a very thin melt freeze crust layer, although we had no reactions on this layer. LOWER: Roughly 40cm of basal facets (1-1.5mm) still persist, however, they appear to be beginning to round. We had hard to initiate results within the basal facet layer during a deep tap test.