Southern San Juan
SnowpackChris Bilbrey · Dec 2, 2018 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cold temperatures and snowfall off and on throughout the day. Snowfall varied between S1 and S2 and light to moderate south winds. Isolated evidence of wind-loading. Sky was obscured for most of the day with a few cloud breaks.
Snowpack
We observed soft storm slabs on east-northeast, east, and south aspects. Very limited wind-scoured surfaces observed ATL and along ridges hinting at overall light winds during the recent storm. Only very minor cracking observed under skis NTL and a few ATL wind-loaded slopes produced surface cracks outward about 5 ft in front of skis. No audible collapses observed at all elevations. Due to known poor snowpack structure, we avoided steep, convexity slopes. Poor overall structure remains NTL/ ATL but surface slab seems to lack cohesion and enough load to tip the scale in this part of the San Juan's. We observed non-propagating results in stability test. BTL snow depth is improving, especially on southerly aspects.