Northern San Juan
AvalancheKrista Beyer Rebecca Hodgetts · Jan 27, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cold morning quickly warming to peasant touring temperatures. Northerly winds were stronger and more sustained than expected for duration of tour.
Snowpack
The height of snow local to the southern end of Cement Creek is shallower than that observed at Red Mountain Pass. 70-85cm pits seemed a good average of the local snowpack on south and southwest aspects. We dug on a south-facing slope where about 40cm of primarily 1F hard snow sits above our layer of concern. 3mm basal facets were primarily 4F hard and showed signs of linking. An ECT test had a hard failure on this layer and boot pen arrested in the surface snow. Our second pit was on a southwest-facing slope above treeline. Snow depth was 85cm with about 30cm of primarily 1F hard slab sitting above F- facets to the ground. An ECT produced moderate results beneath the slab and boot penetration arrested within the surface slab. Notably, over 50 percent of this snowpack is weak fist hard facets. This pit was also dug slope adjacent to an avalanche that was remotely triggered January 20th.
Avalanche
Small west and northwest-facing D1s from earlier in the week observed ATL and NTL.