Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Apr 13, 2020 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cold temperatures and overall conditions for mid-April with strong westerly winds.
Snowpack
New snow was around 1 to 2 inches with isolated drifts up to 5 inches deep. Many near treeline and alpine slopes were scoured down to the old snow surface right next to softer, deeper drifts. The upper snowpack at all elevations is locked up from our recent solid freeze/ cold temperatures. Weaker snow still lingers between harder layers in the top meter but numerous crust and re-frozen layers are holding the snowpack together - no instability observed. After isolating our columns and breaking the strong bond of the crust/ re-frozen layers, we were able to get multiple ECTs to fail on 21 and 23 taps in a layer of moist, faceted grains on an east-northeast aspect at treeline. You could visually see the crack propagate and the slab drop 1 to 2 cm's, but when trying to pull the block off the column it was very stubborn to move. Southerly-facing slopes struggled to warm under today's sun except in wind-sheltered areas below treeline - but only the top inch or so softened at lower elevations.