Northern San Juan
SnowpackBill Nalli · Jan 14, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
WIND!
Snowpack
Above treeline the snow surface got transformed by the strong southwest wind. Southwest and west are stripped to the ground on all exposed slopes near and above treeline. Sastrugi and wind scouring abound. Northwest, north, northeast, east and southeast all have some form of dense wind slab of varying thickness. I did not venture onto any of these newly windloaded slopes today but they have the typical hard slab look of being very stubborn. No new avalanches were seen in this zone today. A snow profile on an east-northeast aspect at treeline showed a HS of 147 centimeters with a 1 finger hard slab resting on 25 centimeters of depth hoar. This location has a large temperature gradient both near the ground and at the January 9 new/old snow interface. Hard compression test results indicate fair stability currently but a poor structure. Prior to the last few small storms, the snowpack in this area was just over a meter deep. Cold temperatures and a couple weeks without a major storm has created conditions that promote faceted crystal growth. The pack is getting weaker in these types of sheltered areas. Not a big stability problem currently but with the next major storm we will need to pay close attention to these types of near and below treeline zones.