Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Becs Hodgetts · Jan 20, 2023 · Northern San Juan

View on map
Observation photo 1Observation photo 2Observation photo 3

Weather

Cold and overcast. Light snow moved in around 11 am, but little accumulation through the day.

Snowpack

Traveled on east and south near treeline. HS 180 -220cm. Stark difference in height of snow from just two weeks ago. East persistent weak layer (pwl) in now buried over a meter deep with a ECTP test score of 30. Clean fracture across the column, but I was wailing on it. No results in snowpack tests on southerlies. I could pry a clean shear from the 1/16 melt freeze crust, but this crust was less than half a cm thick and is not an issue for now.

Avalanche

A D2.5 Persistent Slab avalanche was observed off a north ridge from McMillian. Estimate it ran around January 17th. This same path also ran size D2 in the last high danger period.