Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Mar 5, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm and sunny day with a light, northeasterly breeze.
Snowpack
I traveled northeast-east-southeast aspects near and above treeline. The snowpack in this area was surprisingly deep and solid. Below treeline, HS averaged around 130 cm. You can still feel softer, faceted layers near the bottom of the snowpack pole probing, but the layering has become more homogenous over the past two weeks. Near treeline, the snowpack averaged around 165 cm. I found around 8" of new snow from this week's storm. A thin crust had formed at the surface on southerly and sun-exposed areas yesterday afternoon. The old surface under the new snow was facets and mixed forms in shady areas, and a crust over these grains in sun-exposed areas. This crust/facet combination was reactive to snowpack tests, ECTP 12 and 13. I had some localized collapsing on the same layer. This interface is too close to the surface to be much of an issue, although it could be buried deeper in wind-loaded areas. Deeper faceted layers from early in the season were not reactive to tests, and have become fairly solid.
Avalanche
No activity observed except for one tiny sluff from a near-treeline rock band on Bonita peak.