Southern San Juan

Nearby Spud Mountain SNOTEL at 10660reported a high of 40 degrees and a superficial freeze overnight (min temp of 31 degrees). This is the second night of a superficial freeze, although a soft crust on the surface of east aspects kept things supportive to ski travel. Light westerly winds during the day and high clouds. The snow depth profile (and SWE although the scale is too small to be of much help) is attached. This profile really shows the recent settlement and loss of snow since the storm. Snow depth peaked at 59 inches on the 21st (at the end of the storm) and now reads at 38 inches on the 2nd of March.

In the past 10 days the snowpack has undergone rapid settlement. North and northeast slopes still carry a thick slab of recent snow, around 50 cm thick below treeline. The slab maintains 1 Finger hand hardness and a strong-over-weak structure. Hard propagating results point towards a poor structure that is becoming increasingly stubborn and challenging to impact. Below treeline, tests failed on our basal weak layer over a meter from the surface, whereas near treeline tests failed near the February 11th drought layer.