Northern San Juan

Snowpack

The snowpack is thin and weak all along the corridor south of Silverton. Steep, sunny slopes have melted out again after this storm and have patchy coverage, but shady northerly and easterly-facing paths are holding snow. The snowpack in these areas consists of 8-18" inches of completely unconsolidated (F to F-) facets. Wind-exposed areas have a thin (2-3cm) 1F-hard wind crust at the surface, which is softening from the faceting process. Not much evidence of the recent warm-up observed. Some sunny areas had a very thin, fragile M/F crust, but it was quite isolated. Coverage is still thin, but it won't take much of a load to create problems where there is enough snow to cover surface roughness.