Weather
Total storm snow was 2" (0.2" of snow water equivalent). Light northwest wind with scattered clouds.
Snowpack
We dug on an east slope adjacent to a large cornice failure. This area had seen significant wind loading during the high winds on March 18th. We found a snowpack defined by 4-finger hard wind-drifted decomposing fragments over a midpack 1-finger slab above 3-4mm fist hard facets. Structurally, this setup highlights the lingering persistent slab problem. Due to previous wind loading, the weak facets were over a meter deep in this area. In many areas of the Southern San Juans, these weak facets are closer to the surface due to the low snow conditions observed throughout this season. We received no propagating results during extended column tests in upper wind-drifted layers or on the weak facets in the lower pack. The tests did highlight non-propagating failures on a finger-hard wind-packed layer buried under the most recent snowfall.