Northern San Juan
SnowpackChris Dickson · Feb 10, 2025 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Moderate winds out of the southwest, temperatures slightly above freezing, overcast skies.
Snowpack
It would appear that the February Heatwave tricked our southerly slopes into thinking it's April! I found a stout crust on a southwest-facing slope at 10,200' that was around 6 inches thick and fully supportable to boot pressure, allowing me to walk around on the surface without punching through. Digging down, I found percolation tubes and evidence of liquid water moving down into the snowpack. The snowpack here consisted of moist grains all the way to the ground (not too often you get to make a snowball out of depth hoar crystals in February) and looked more like the snowpack I would expect in Spring. On this same slope, I strolled maybe 50 feet over and dug another pit, this time in the shade of some large dense trees and boy, what a contrast. In the shade, the snowpack was completely dry and faceted, with no crusts to be found. Instead, this pit revealed rounding facets in the most recent snow, and then facets over depth hoar from 55cms to the ground. The largest depth hoar crystal I could find was around 6mm x 6mm in size. Instability tests yielded no results, only smooshed facets. When the next big load arrives (hopefully on Friday), I'll be most concerned with avalanches failing at the new/old snow interface.