Northern San Juan
SnowpackAmy Pertuz · Jan 26, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cold and clear, with a north wind keeping things feeling crisp. Winds were not moving snow other than isolated small plumes off of high ridges.
Snowpack
The last four weeks have done a lot to deepen and strengthen the snowpack here. The drought PWL ranged from 125 to 155 cm below the surface, and a faceted sun crust buried on January 14th was becoming less reactive than it was a week ago, buried just over 50cm below the surface in the alpine. Upper snowpack has showed signs of settlement, but cold temperatures have slowed this and also kept surfaces cold and dry, even on lower elevation and sunny slopes. The snowpack is trending towards a place where the drought persistent weak layer from early season is too deep to be impacted easily, and deep enough that the weak grains can strengthen. Test found weak grains, at this drought layer still, with sudden and planar failures, so you can still create avalanches in this layer if you were able to find a thinner spot where you can impact this weak layer from. Signs of recent NE and N winds could be seen as localized drifted areas on ridges and in isolated features, and above tree line snows on W and NW aspects were thickened, but stiff wind slabs were not encountered in areas traveled.