Northern San Juan
SnowpackAndrew Temple · Dec 9, 2013 · Northern San Juan
Weather
VERY cold temps today with moderate NNW'ly winds above TL. Moderate snow transport observed. Very clear skies all day with very cold snow surface temps.
Snowpack
HS averaging around 80-120cm. Below treeline the snowpack is still mainly cohesionless crust/facet/new snow on the south half of the compass but on the northies is developing some slab. This slab rests on a variety of weak layers ranging from old faceting melt/freeze layer to well developed DH in the shadier areas. Observed some natural or remote human-triggered slabs on the steep NE-facing rolls that border both edges of Sams. These involved the last one or two storms' snow but had impressive propagation. We skied the path on the far north side of sams which hadn't seen much traffic and got a huge, rolling collapse in the starting zone about the size of half a football field with large shooting cracks extending through the entire area. Mid-pack slab is finally developing below TL with localized reactivity. If we add an inch or three of water we will start to see more and more persistent slab problems and deeper releases as the storms pile up. Overall, the structure is poor, and this is the bottom line for decision making this season so far. Above TL many areas are blown out or really hard windslab, while others are scarily loaded. The near treeline zone seems to be the most problematic and slowest to recede in hazard as it has the most preserved deep weaknesses, and larger persistent slabs due to more loading than the alpine due to the very high winds as of late.