Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Jeremy Yanko · Feb 12, 2022 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Dusting of new snow in this corridor overnight. Intermittent gusts out of the north calming by mid afternoon. Generally mild.

Snowpack

Traveled on a predominantly west facing slope allowing to check out SW and NW as well, between 10,000-11'600ft. Below treeline on these west facing glades, hold an HS:40cm with a 1F-, 2cm thick crust on the surface capping a mostly faceted snowpack with some residual increased hardness (F+) near the bottom of the shallow profile. Southwest BTL slopes at this location present a well developed 5cm, 1F melt freeze crust. The subtle aspect change from west to southwest makes for a more supportable and helpful surface to travel on skis going uphill. The snow surfaces are very inconsistent as you move closer to near treeline. Old and new wind-slabs of varying thicknesses can be found on ridge features, breakable wind crusts in wind exposed areas and of course cold faceted powder still supporting skis (Boot pen 45cm) in wind protected terrain on northerlies. Near and above treeline is rough and erratic revealing old wind slabs and some newly formed lenses with steady NW winds over last few days. All and all its highly variable in this zone (as many) with plenty of weak interfaces and structures. No signs of instability were observed. It will require a slope by slope analysis when a new storm of substance pulls in to manage the variable reactivity of new and old snow interfaces.