It's looking more like winter up on Coal Bank Pass. Coal Bank has received around 18 inches of snow since December 25th. That adds up to around one-third of the season's snowfall in the past week. Recent storm snow shows signs of settlement and no signs of instability were observed while traveling below treeline.

Northeast of Coal Bank Pass

New snow sits on top of weak facets on north slopes just like the rest of the San Juan Mountains. I dug below treeline to continue tracking the sensitivity of our Persistent Slab avalanche problem at lower elevations. I found around 30 cm of recent snow sitting above 80cm of faceted old snow. I observed easy non-propagating failures at the new/old interface. Although weak and fully faceted, a "right-side-up" structure is maintained in the old snow.

Blue skies and sunshine are back on the menu after a fairly cloudy and stormy week. Temperatures were around 25 degrees at 10,600ft and calm winds made for a pleasant morning. Around 18 inches of snow accumulation was measured on Coal Bank Pass since December 25th.