Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Jeff Davis · Feb 19, 2016 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Mild temperatures and strong SW winds.

Snowpack

DUST!!! The mountains are covered in a thin layer of desert dust. This dust layer arrived as strong southwest winds hammered the snowpack. Exposed areas are stripped, as snow accumulated in terrain features like couloirs or below isolated terrain features. Stiff Wind Slabs developed that were not penetrable by skis. Very little snow surface warming was observed at higher elevations. Winds keeping things cool again today. At lower elevations you can still feel the Melt Freeze crust that developed with this past weeks warm temps.