Northern San Juan
SnowpackAndrew Temple · Feb 7, 2011 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Snowing and gusty below treeline
Snowpack
New snow has been actively drifting with the recent NW winds. In an open area well below treeline there were already drifts in excess of 4 feet deep. Open areas appear scoured on high spots and loaded in low spots with huge wind rows and pillows dominating the landscape. The storm snow feels cake-like and is notably slabby anywhere that is even slightly wind affected. There's also a noticeable density increase sandwiched in the middle of the new snow. Storm snow does not appear to be bonding well to suncrusts on the south half of the compass as exhibited by the skier triggered slide in the "marmot town" path. Another likely failure layer in the upper pack is a RR layer that was about 20cm below the pre-storm surface that has been ID'd in recent pits including one at Swamp Angel last Thur. Feels as though we're on the tipping point of a potentially widespread natural cycle for W-S-NE if upper end of forecasted snowfall amounts materialize and winds keep up like they have been. Up until this point, loading on these aspects has been just gradual enough to not tip the scales past some localized pockets of natural activity but the ingredients could be coming together for some large wall-to-wall avalanches, especially on SE.