Weather
Warm, sunny, and calm. Beautiful San Juan day.
Snowpack
Digging on north slopes near and below treeline, the snowpack showed signs of significant faceting. The new and old interface continues to be the layer of concern as the recent storm snow settles on top of what was a weak and faceted snowpack. Compression tests in the near-treeline pit highlight the weak layer under the most recent snow. That same weak layer didn't produce propagating results in long column test, hinting to a lack of propagation. Below treeline, a crust was observed deep in the snowpack. There were more developed facets above and below this crust, but it was not reactive in snowpack tests or during the recent Thanksgiving storm. Probing in close proximity, this stiffer layer is spatially variable. On shady slopes the height of snow below treeline was 0-70cm and near treeline was 50-105cm. We observed very little cracking and isolated collapsing under skis.
Avalanche
A few natural avalanches were observed near Jura Knob, but these slides were small and isolated to just below wind loaded features. This area did not produce large avalanches like the ones observed just to the north outside of the town of Silverton