Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Jeremy Yanko · Mar 8, 2022 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Perfectly chilly, north winds decreasing by mid day.

Snowpack

Settling storm snow at this location of ~20 cm below treeline. Found good bonding of new snow and old interface, which is a 4cm melt-freeze crust and the top 1cm is still moist while put to bed under warm temps and cloudy skies on 3/4. Found both east and west BTL/NTL sample sites to hold a similar pencil hardness crust layer with moist rounds below. Crusts were supportable to boot for the most part. Lower elevation seemed to have a weaker freeze prior to 3/4-3/7 storm. Measured 30cm of recent storm snow NTL/ATL ~12,000 ft. Snow surface warming taking place by mid day but did not find any decrease in stability on mostly west aspects from 11-2:30pm. Only observed cracking isolated to ski length on wind-affected surfaces. Largely thin wind crusts were found below ridgeline and proper hollow wind-slabs formed on ridgetop.