Southern San Juan

Snowpack

Becs Hodgetts · Jan 22, 2022 · Southern San Juan

Weather

Mostly clear, calm and warm. sunny slopes below treeline were just beginning to soften when I left the field at 230pm.

Snowpack

Below treeline easterlies had a surprisingly thin (1cm)and brittle (1F) melt freeze crust below the skiff of new snow. A second firmer crust (5cm) sandwiches 10cm of fist hard snow. South slopes had a much firmer snow surface which has receded to dirty, uneven runnels and a crust up to 10cm thick makes up the snow surface at 10 000'. I dug on an exposed northeast facing slope at around 117000'. Here HS 110cm and was obviously wind affected. The snowpack was made up of mostly of 1F rounds, with some drifted new snow at the surface. A 2cm thick dust layer was clearly observed 30cm below the surface. Depth hoar layer at the base was only 22cm thick, showing signs of rounding and was not reactive in ECT tests, stubborn in a CT. Very small and stubborn wind slabs were found at ridge top. Northerlies near and below treeline have a 5-10cm thick faceted (F) upper snowpack.