Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Mar 23, 2020 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Broken skies to start with a progressively lowering cloud deck by late morning. Skies became overcast then obscured by 1 pm with light snow and winds with moderate gusts. By 3 pm, snowfall picked up as did wind speeds- sustained along ridge tops above treeline. Snow was squally with periods of S2. New snow accumulations around 2 inches at 11,000 feet.
Snowpack
Recent storm snow continues to settle making travel less arduous as last weekend. Light but consistent snowfall since the main event on 3/19-20 has left snow surfaces soft on many aspects. A thin surface crust is found on southerly-facing slopes below treeline but easily broke under our skis. Today's increase in winds helped transport and blow snow around at higher elevations but was not vigorous enough to start stripping wind-ward slopes. Lee's have developed a thin wind-skin on the surface but most alpine slopes felt slightly wind-pressed versus hard slabs forming. Stronger winds had less of an impact on near treeline terrain. A snowpit on a west aspect at 11,800 feet revealed cohesive March snow sitting above a myriad of crust and weaker facets. Once we dug down through recent snowfall, boot penetration was almost all the way to the ground. Propagating failures occurred in a layer of facets below a stout crust that most likely formed at the end of February. Test failed with just 13 taps and the block above came shooting outward. Interfaces between March storms were not reactive in our pits but were easily identified. Despite our troublesome snowpit results, we didn't observe cracking or collapsing.