Northern San Juan
SnowpackAmy Pertuz · Jan 29, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
A blustery day, with steady moderate southerly winds moving limited amounts of snow at ridgetop level. Transport was localized to upper-elevation ridgelines and was not impacting slopes below treeline. Temperatures were a notch warmer than the last few days, in the low 20s.
Snowpack
Southerly winds continued building shallow wind slabs in the Red Mountain Pass corridor, though blowing snow volumes were limited and mostly confined to ridgetop. The low-density snow which was preserved under the wind-affected snow has made for a reactive interface with these wind slabs. The snow depth on easterly aspects in this area ranges from `140 cm to `170 cm. As the midpack compresses and becomes harder, it is more difficult to impact deep and even mid-pack weak layers. No results in Compression Tests or Extended Columns Tests. However, in an informal test, couple of extra "hard taps" resulted in a propagating failure in an Extended Column Test, failing cleanly in small facets which formed above a melt-freeze crust in mid-January. The clean, planar failure at this interface, 55 cm below the surface, gives me pause.