Northern San Juan
SnowpackSven Brunso · Nov 12, 2012 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Overcast with snow showers and light wind.
Snowpack
At an elevation of 11,400' in Velocity Basin, pits showed a depth ranging from 18-25". Some faceting at ground level, in areas that had previous snow from October event. Lowest level of snow was dense and compact. Graupel/Dust layer rested on the dense layer and was about 1" thick. Looks like dust came in just prior to graupel event. Next 4-5" was lighter density but had been wind compressed. Top 6" was low density snow. With tests failure occurred on graupel level in all occasions. This graupel layer may become problematic if the next snow load comes in heavy or with significant wind loading. </br></br> Temperatrure during observation was 4F with winds of 10mph occasionally gusting higher in the afternoon. Sky was overcast with light orographic snow showers.