Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Krista Beyer Troy Nordquist · Mar 7, 2024 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Pulses of snow and shifting clouds throughout the day. Temperatures remained cool, new accumulation limited to an inch or two of low density snow.

Snowpack

New snow was reactive on the dust layer in the form of small dry loose activity on steep features. This layer will remain something to look out for with new loading events. Below treeline snow depth varies considerably from sun-affected to northerly terrain. We dug on a below treeline NW slope at 11,000 feet. Test results produced moderate non-propagating failures (see media) in the upper snowpack on the layers from the last two wind-driven storms. Dust can be clearly seen in the 3/3 layer and less pronounced, but still present in the 2/27 layer. We also had the opportunity to look at basal facets. The basal weak layer has reduced in grain size (3-4mm in January to 1-2mm) and moved from a F to a 4F hardness. A 5cm pencil slab sits above the basal facets. The basal weak layer is unreactive and will likely remain so unless a prolonged warming event or a multiple-day storm chooses to arrive to the region.