Southern San Juan

Snowpack

Rohan Roy · Nov 9, 2013 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Sunny, high temp. at freezing, light wind.

Snowpack

Shallow (1-2ft), but adequate for making cautious turns in the trees down to about 10,800ft. Investigated snowpack on windloaded ridgetops (at treeline). Experienced significant collapsing (about every 10 steps). Skied across NE test slope below ridge and got large collapse with 100ft crack propagation. Snowpack at treeline consists of soft windslab on top of developing facets, on top of 4" of crust from early season storms. Snowpack in the trees was supportable and no sign of slab or instability.