Northern San Juan
AvalancheAshley Klassen · Feb 18, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
The storm had passed and skies cleared. It was single digits when we started skinning at 0730. The storm finished on the 16th with a northwest wind, although Ophir commonly sees a due west wind as well.
Snowpack
PBasin Telluride reported 7 inches of new on the 16th and 8.7 inches of new snow on the 17th on the Telluride ski area. The Ophir zone likely received more.
Avalanche
Noticed several avalanches that appeared to have run toward the end of the storm on mostly south facing aspects but some westerly aspects as well. The new snow landed on a solid crust on these aspects. It didn’t appear that the toe of these avalanches went much past the Ophir Pass road. Also observed a large avalanche on an easterly aspect below Ophir Peak. Saw part of the crown and a large pile of debris in the bottom of Swamp Valley. Wasn’t able to get good eyes on it as we didn’t ascend the ridge very far out of the trees. All of these slides were above treeline.