Northern San Juan
SnowpackChris Dickson · Oct 31, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
It was a calm, blue sky morning, with temperatures and solar gain increasing throughout the morning. On the ski out, the snow at lower elevations had begun to moisten from the sun.
Snowpack
I dug two snowpits below and near treeline. In both pits I found a right-side up snowpack, with the new snow coming in denser on the bottom and lighter on the top. This is sitting on settled denser snow that fell earlier in October. I did a compression test on a northwest-facing slope at 12,000' that resulted in a CT 13 resistant planar break, about 12" down, failing within the new snow. The new snow was not showing any slab characteristics.