Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey · Mar 25, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Sunny and warm > hot by mid-afternoon with a steady northwest wind. Recorded 47 Fahrenheit at 10,200 feet in the shade at 3 pm.
Snowpack
Today, the snowpack started to show effects from the current warm-up. The upper snowpack is getting moist and the wetting front appears to be making its way closer to drier, faceted snow deeper in the snowpack. Still, light winds at upper elevations and a weak surface freeze has kept the upper snowpack from falling apart and a supportable crust still exist below moist grains. The upper 20 to 30 cm's of the snowpack below treeline was wet on east to south through southwest slopes by the afternoon. Near treeline, depth of wet snow decreased to about 10 to 15 cm's. However, we did find post hole conditions on a rocky southeast slope near treeline by mid-afternoon that was concerning. We observed moderate sudden collapse failures in Compression Test on an east-facing slope around 10,800 feet. Failures occurred in moist to wet grains above a crust in the top 12 to 18 inches below the surface. We did not observe failures in the 2/21 interface, but the crust above those rounding facets is softening as water makes its way deeper. Above treeline, we were able to sheet wet snow off a buried crust, but moving snow did not gain much mass while moving downhill. This may change with more night's of non-freezing conditions. Northerly-facing slopes still harbor dry, cold snow with only the top 1 to 2 inches getting moist. This was more widespread on northwest and northeast slopes versus due north.
Avalanche
Small Loose Wet activity on SE slopes N/BTL.