Northern San Juan

Snowpack

I toured above treeline south of Telluride today. Recent moderate to strong southerly and northerly winds had distributed the snow in various ways in the alpine terrain. Wind-blown drifts were 2 to 3 feet deep on leeward slopes. Areas of thin wind slab were encountered on exposed north facing slopes. Westerly aspects were more wind stripped and had a variety of fresh wind-blown snow, old hard slab or bare ground. Starting mid morning, wet roller balls or clumps of wet snow were rolling out of steep slopes where exposed rock aided in warming the snow surface. Nothing big released from east aspects but I would suspect that subsequent days of warming temperatures will start to affect deeper snow layers on east through south to west slopes at all elevations. Larger wet slides will become the next avalanche concern as daytime temperatures rise.