Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Ann Mellick · Nov 16, 2020 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Sunny and warm with light and variable winds.

Snowpack

Snowpack varies quite a bit depending on aspect and elevation, though remains overall thin (early-season) everywhere. Northerly aspects below tl hold on average ~80 cm snow and a fairly simple snowpack structure: ~20 cm new snow from Nov 14 storm sitting on firm midpack (1F), which sits on ~15 cm of basal facets. No cracking or collapsing anywhere I travelled, including on steep wind loaded rolls. Southerly slopes have only thin coverage. Areas that hold snow have two dominant melt-freeze crusts- one on the surface and one 10-20 cm down- with facets between. We will need to monitor this with a significant load. Affects from recent strong winds (both SW and NW) can be seen on virtually all aspects and elevation. The alpine zone is particularly variable; overall thin coverage, with the deepest snow deposits in gullies. Exposed faces are stripped and a variety of snow surfaces can be found- drummy to breakable surface slabs up to 6" thick, bullet-proof hard slab and some softer recycled powder in sheltered areas. Mild temps and strong sun made the snow on sunny slopes sticky by noon. I imagine we will lose quite a bit of snow to melting this week... Snow is thinnest on southerlies, where it will likely continue