Southern San Juan

Snowpack

Anonymous · Dec 27, 2010 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Very warm the last few days since the clouds lifted

Snowpack

lots of crust on sunny aspects, some even supportable. Very large crystals of surface hoar on almost all aspects, although most predominate on flat, cold shady areas. The feathers were up to 3/4" tall in places. Made for noisy skiing. Snowpack is really bomber here, 4.5 to 5 feet very settled snow (11k) on top of 20" of old snow that is compressed down to solid crystals and facets that are bonding together. At the ground you can make snowballs due to the moist nature of it. Not signs of current instability but plenty of big releases last week, most propagated below treeline on steep rollovers. I counted over 20 in one drainage alone.