Southern San Juan

Snowpack

Matt Huber · Nov 10, 2020 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Snow showers lingered for most of the trip with very light accumulations. Temperatures rose into the double digits by noon. Southwest winds were strong enough to move snow but only very light to no new loading.

Snowpack

The total snowpack depth ranged between 80 to 120 centimeters. At 11,300 feet on a northeast-facing slope, the total snow depth was 105 cm. The 11/7 storm made up the top 70 cm of the snowpack, generally homogenous and right side up. Ski penetration was less than 20 cm in the storm snow. The basal 30 cm was left from the October 26 storm. Although the forms were advanced facets, the basal layer was moist and well sintered. No failure with extended column tests at the old new interface and only a hard/ non-propagating failure ECTN-29 at 45 cm from the ground on a graupel layer