Southern San Juan
SnowpackAnonymous · Jan 6, 2025 · Southern San Juan
Weather
BKN skies, mild temps, light SW winds. Snow flurries began around 4:00 pm
Snowpack
Snowpits on northerly slopes near and below treeline showed a weak structure with both the 11/26 and 12/25 PWLs standing out, and produced mixed results in stability tests. On protected NW and NE slopes snow from the storm that began on 12/25 has both remained soft since it fell and lost strength to near surface faceting and was not any harder than the faceted snow below. The 11/26 interface produced a broken failure on 28 taps in compression test but was unreactive in long column tests. On open slopes where the wind had stiffened the snow from late December into a more cohesive slab, compression tests produced SP failures with moderate force and ECTs produced a mix of propagating and non propagating results with moderate to hard force. Cracking and collapsing were experienced on an open, wind drifted NE slope below treeline but obvious signs of instability were few and far between on most slopes. On northerly slopes below 11,000 ft, very firm layers of melt and ice forms from warm temps and rain events in early November make up the bottom of the snowpack and the structure here is not as exceptionally weak as many other areas of the southern mountains. New snow from 1/4-1/5 had turned into a thin zipper crust on E and SE slopes near and below treeline by late afternoon.