Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Jeff Davis Chris Bilbrey · Apr 30, 2020 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Warm spring day with intermittent cloud cover and light wind. Very seasonable for April 30th.

Snowpack

The surface of the snowpack was surprisingly firm after a warm night. A stout supportable crust was observed from the parking area around 7:30 am. The snow surface was also frozen in the alpine and cloudy skies kept it that way during the length of our tour. As we returned back to the highway around 11 am the surface of the snow was mushy near and below treeline and the tails of our skies were breaking through the crust. Saturated snow grains were observed to the ground. Classic spring day.

Avalanche

We are in the mist of our second natural wet avalanche cycle. Avalanches over the last 48 hours have grown in size and shifted to the North side of the compass. Multiple large trending to very large Loose Wet slides gouging to the ground were observed today predominantly on Northwest facing slopes.