Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey Jeff Davis · Jan 3, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful day in the mountains with lots of sunshine and light north winds keeping air temperatures cool. Ridge top winds were overall light with consistent moderate gusts and flagging from high peaks.
Snowpack
This portion of the South San Juan zone received much needed snowfall during our last storm with 16-18" of new snow which has settled down to 12-14". Snow depth varies from 0.5-1.0 m. Prior to this storm, snowpack below and near treeline was soft and cohesionless and significant wind-scouring made for overall thin and non-continuous snow cover above treeline. New snow is still very soft on northerly and easterly-facing slopes making for deep uphill travel. Sun and warm temperatures have allowed recent snow on southerly slopes to settle, consolidate, and stiffen. No loose activity noticed during our tour on southerly slopes. Overall natural avalanche activity was limited to isolated slopes primarily above treeline. We observed isolated collapses primarily in open, flat terrain with new surface hoar formation in similar areas. No sluffing or cracking noted in steeper, treed terrain where we traveled. We observed CTE in recent storm slab, CTM below December snowfall and ECTN18 on same interface.