Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Ann Mellick · Jan 4, 2021 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Sunny and warm with very little wind above treeline. Felt springlike- too warm for early January. Today's warm temps left a surface crust on sunny slopes below treeline. Increasing cloud cover by late afternoon.

Snowpack

The snowpack continues to show signs of lingering instability: cracking, collapsing and human triggered slides in steep terrain. While the likelihood of triggering has decreased (if even slightly) clues continue to point to an unstable snowpack. Snowpits continue to show two primary weak layers (one below the most recent storm and one buried on Dec 11th after the prolonged dry spell). Winds have raked across the alpine, leaving 1" to 10" thick firm slabs (sitting on older facets) in some areas, while adjacent areas are blown back to rock or simply just faceted snow top to bottom. Snowpit tests above treeline on a SE slope showed propagating results of a hard slab with only low/moderate effort (ECTP13).