Northern San Juan
SnowpackChris Dickson · Nov 23, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm springlike conditions (40-50 degree F), with gusty winds increasing throughout the day. Thin clouds in the morning yielded to partly sunny skies. Snow became wet, sticky, and slow on the exit.
Snowpack
I dug two snowpits. In the first pit at 10,800' on a west-facing slope, I found 74cms of snow that mostly consisted of fist-hard facets of similar size. In compression and extended column tests, I got no results. The top 20cms of snow here was incredibly weak, which is representative of many below treeline shaded slopes in this area. The second pit I dug was at 11,500' on an east-facing slope. The snowpack here showed the impacts of sun and wind, with more layers and a concerning structure of 4-finger over fist-hard snow 30cms below the surface. I got a CT24 resistant planer result on this interface, but no results in an extended column test. The snowpack here also featured a well-developed basal facet layer consisting of 2mm facets.