Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Very weak and unstable. Below treeline is only a few inches of coverage on southerly aspects. On other aspects a bit more and mostly facets from top to bottom. AS you near treeline small pockets of slabs about 2 feet thick exist over mostly faceted snow to the ground. It was very easy to trigger these slabs which generally collapsed to the ground and took all the facets with them as they ran. More pronounced and stiffer slabs above treeline. The slabs are in small pockets about 20 feet wide, and do not seems continuous over larger terrain features. Better snowpack support up high, but the potential for larger avalanches as well.