Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Ann Mellick · Mar 24, 2013 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Cold, clear and windy this morning. Turning partly cloudy by noon. Temps stayed cool all day and WNW breeze was brisk! It did not feel very spring-like today. (Record low regional temps this morning.)

Snowpack

Below treeline: The 4"-8" of new storm snow has done very little to change avalanche conditions. The new snow is sitting on crusts of varying thickness on all but the deepest, darkest north facing slopes. Frigid temps have refrozen melt/freeze crusts solid. Near and above treeline: Recent winds (first from the SW, then W and NW) have redistributed recent snowfall. While we did not go above treeline today, I imagine there are some fresh windslabs on open terrain. Easterly slopes seemed the most loaded and suspect, with ample cross loading of terrain elsewhere. Overall: Cold temps and continued gusty winds are not allowing the new snow to settle much. Primary avalanche concern is fresh windslabs from recent snow, near and above treeline.