Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Feb 2, 2023 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Chilly start. The sun felt good and allowed air temperatures to moderate into the 20s near treeline by midday. Light north winds along ridgetops.
Snowpack
As we flipped the page in the calendar to February, the higher sun angle is slowly having a stronger influence on surface conditions and driving additional snowpack settlement. We observed widespread crust formation on east to south-facing slopes. The crust was more robust at lower elevations becoming somewhat breakable as we approached the treeline. We sampled snow height across an east-facing slope at 11,650 feet, and depths ranged from 200 to 215 cm. We found a couple of concerning weak snow layers near the surface that were stubborn to fail in the test, and verdicts are still out on whether they will linger over time. Faceted layers around 2 feet deep are rounding and were unreactive. Probing across a northeast-facing slope a little higher up, there were very subtle changes to layering in the top meter of the snowpack. Softer layers are sandwiched between harder layers but were unreactive to ski pressure on small test slopes and in quick pits near the treeline. The snow surface on exposed northerly slopes at higher elevations was moderately wind-pressed and creamy. In general, impressive snow coverage across all aspects and elevations for early February.