Northern San Juan
SnowpackTroy Nordquist · Dec 19, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Weather was unseasonably warm with temperatures cresting the low 40's at noon, broken skies, and light winds from the southeast.
Snowpack
Southerly slopes near and above treeline were bare to 40cm deep. Southeast was deepest, and a quick snow pit showed several crusts with facets sandwiched between them—no results in an ECT and hard failure in the basal facets in a CT. Northerly slopes have a slightly deeper, but still shallow, snowpack with depths ranging from 60-90cm near and below treeline. A combination of small-grain fist and four-finger facets near the surface extended down to a one-finger slab above larger-grain, fist-hard facets at the ground. A snowpit on a sheltered northwest near treeline slope showed high scores in an ECT ECTP24 at 14cm and a moderate, planar shovel shear at the ground. A snowpit on a northerly, exposed below treeline slope showed no results in an ECT or CT tests, mostly due to a soft overall snowpack structure; however, with forecast storms, the threshold for these slopes to see natural activity is low.