Northern San Juan

Another blue sky morning with not a cloud in sight. Calm winds, light gusts out of the southwest. Temperatures quickly rose into the 40s by midday.

The snowpack has shrunk significantly, and become patchy on east and west-facing slopes below treeline. On steeper south-facing slopes, the snowpack has vanished up to 11,000 feet. In open meadows, below treeline, it is about 50 centimeters deep and dry and faceting. However, in the trees, a greenhouse effect has occurred, and the snowpack is wet and rounded from top to bottom. Even in the shady areas at lower elevations below tree line, there's a melt freeze crust on the surface with moist facets below it. Sunny slopes have a stout crust, ranging from 5 to 10 centimeters thick, and it's supportable to skis. Near treeline, the snowpack is deeper and drier, but also faceted through. Above the treeline, the snowpack remains shallow in many places. In the shallow spots, unless you're standing on a stout wind slab, you're sinking to the bottom, because it is completely faceted through. There is plenty of weak snow for future avalanches to fail on at every elevation band.