Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnn Mellick · Dec 28, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Stormy with heavy snow and strong southerly winds. High precip intensity in the morning hours with a slight lull around noon.
Snowpack
Storm snow quickly added up overnight and this morning with 10 inches new measured as of 12pm today. Strong and gusty winds were quickly redistributing new snow near and above treeline and in open areas below treeline. Average new snow height was 8" with drifts up to 2' deep. The new snow bonded fairly well to old surface crusts on sunny slopes, but failed fast and clean on buried facets once the crusts were isolated. New snow was the most reactive with localized cracking and collapsing and easily triggered sluffs on northerly terrain. No cracking/collapsing on slopes w/o a northerly tilt.
Avalanche
Minor natural sluffing from very steep shady terrain (D1). Also, some minor sluffing with skier pressure on steep northerly slopes (also D1).