Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Susan Hale Mark Gober · Feb 17, 2016 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Warmer day with partly cloudy skies and increasing winds from the south. Temps quite cool at treeline with the strong winds.

Snowpack

Crusty surfaces except on the most northerly or protected locations. At treeline depths ranged from 100cm to drifted areas of over 250cm. The SSW aspect near treeline where we dug has a good fetch for northerly winds resulting in a relatively deep and supportive snowpack. Today's strong winds at this treeline elev were keeping surfaces cool. As we skied down-slope out of the wind, surfaces warmed to "almost corn".. Well below treeline found much shallower, wetter snow especially in heavily treed areas protected by cooling winds.