Southern San Juan

Warm, clear skies, with little wind until some afternoon gusts coming out of the north that were felt near tree-line. Since December 9th high temperatures for this area have been 4-12 degrees above freezing. Despite this, snow coverage remains mostly connected on west through north to east facing slopes. Windward slopes also look like they have held on to snow well, differing from the wind scouring we have been seeing in the northwest San Juans.

We selected two previously wind-drifted areas near treeline to dig. Generally, we found that slabs are deteriorating, and weak layers are unreactive. Here are the details: We began observations at the treeline on an east-facing ridge at 11,500 feet, where the surface snow was soft, and the HS measured 105 centimeters. Below 85 cm, the snowpack stiffened from four-finger to pencil hardness at depths of 45-40 cm. The snowpack consists mainly of faceted rounds. Both compression and extended column tests yielded zero results. Our second field observation was at treeline on a shaded northeast-facing bowl at 11,460 feet. Surface snow was soft, and HS was 85 centimeters. At 56 centimeters, a stiffer, four-finger layer was present down to 20 centimeters. Below 20 centimeters, the snow softened to a fist-hard layer of faceting snow to the ground.