Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Feb 28, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Light snowfall starting late morning and continuing until the early afternoon, but didn't amount to any accumulation.
Snowpack
Significant settlement (SNOTELs reporting 3') observed to the snow surface during the recent dry spell and warmer temperatures. The snowpack in the La Plata Mountains appears to be gaining strength with snow depths ranging from 1.5-2.5 meters deep. No signs of instability on S-SW-W-NW facing slopes near or below treeline where we traveled. Any southerly-facing slope had a 0.5-1 inch thick sun crust and will be interesting to see if this creates a problem during our next loading event. Shady slopes still holding soft snow but the snow surface is beginning to facet. We observed a noticeable difference in the surface snow quality transitioning from dry snow near treeline to moist and heavy snow below 10,000 feet. We observed 3 different persistent weak layers (near-surface facets) within the top 1.5 meters of the snowpack in multiple snowpits on W and NW aspects near treeline. Each layer showed signs of rounding and were non-reactive in long column test.