Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Jan 12, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Mild day with generally calm winds along ridge tops and above treeline. It felt darn right hot in wind-sheltered areas.
Snowpack
The snowpack is in a state of status quo - not much change and slow to heal. Above about 11,000 feet, the upper snowpack has settled into a 40 to 50 cm thick slab over a 15 cm layer of large grain facets on northerly aspects. In addition, the top 10 cm's of surface snow is faceting and weakening. As a whole, the overlying slab remains supportable to skis, but we easily punched through to the ground in our boots. Many northwest-facing slopes along ridge tops have been scoured from strong winds and snow cover is marginal till about 100 feet or so down the slope. We continue to observe concerning ECTs failing at the 12/11 interface (facets) and propagating across the column with moderate to hard force. In one test today, the block came shooting off with excitement! These conditions continue to be observed mostly above about 11,000 feet and into the near treeline zone. The snowpack below about 11,000 feet continues to get weaker and more unconsolidated and we could trigger loose snow sluffs while cutting across the top of small but steeper, open areas. Sluffs were generally small and harmless but something to watch out for moving forward. Margins of snow cover are narrowing on southerly-facing alpine slopes and those same aspects are getting thin and bare near treeline.