Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Mar 6, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
The sky was clearing in the am, but once the wind flipped to more westerly heavy snow observed. Temperatures were cold in the low teens at upper elevations and winds southwest and west.
Snowpack
5" of snow was measured by the Telluride Ski Patrol on the morning of March 6th, and another 4"-5" fell during the day, mainly in the afternoon. Southwest and westerly winds were strong enough to drive the new snow onto leeward slopes. Hiking out the ridge, we observed drifts on snow on ridgelines and near the top of start zones. The wind was even stiffening the surface. Dipping into Bear Creek on an east-facing slope, drifts on snow were up to 18" deep, but as soon as you got away from the ridgeline, depth and surface stiffness decreased. Lower on the slope, you could feel a crust under the new snow that developed during the warming period earlier in the week. Sluffing was observed on that curst on test slopes steeper than around 35 degrees. In this area, the new snow appears to be driving the hazard. The main caveat is this area sees a lot of skier traffic, and I would bet the facets that luck in the snowpack below last week's more significant storm was highly disturbed before the past two storms. We did experience rumbling collapses in flat terrain, and westerly terrain BTL, where a crust sits over weaker snow and the snowpack is under a meter deep. These collapses seem specific to slopes where the surface is now refrozen.
Avalanche
Visibility kept me from observing any crowns recent avalanche activity. Alas, debris piles in areas makes me feel confident a natural cycle, both wet and dry, followed last weekends whopper of a storm.