Northern San Juan

Overcast, high clouds with the sun trying to burn through. Temperatures in the 20s. You can feel the moisture from the low trough from Baja headed into the region.

Deep areas of wind-loaded snow exist, but they are generally isolated to specific terrain features and do not extend far below ridgelines. Thin, but firm pencil-hard slabs generally have a varied distribution in the alpine. We were still able to find a supportable crust beneath recent snow on many alpine slopes, but the crust varies in thickness. Faceted grains are readily available around these buried crusts. On the planar slopes we travelled, slabs deteriorated quickly beneath ridgelines.