Northern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey Jeff Davis · Mar 6, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm sunny day with light winds above 11,500 feet. High clouds moved overhead in the afternoon and this moderated daytime heating.
Snowpack
Spring has sprung in the San Juan Mountains. The snowpack is showing signs of warming on sunny and low elevation slopes, but don't be fooled the we are not into a full spring cycle yet. Traveling on south-facing slopes in the morning the top 5-15 cm's of the snowpack was showing signs of warming. The wet snow sat above a firm ~20 cm melt-freeze crust. Below the crust moist facets persisted. At approximately 11,800' the snowpack turned dry and cold. Southerly winds helped to keep the surface of the snowpack firm today in the alpine. In the afternoon we traveled on westerly slopes. At around 10,500' the snowpack became bottomless and hollow which resulted in post holing to our knees while skiing downhill. No wet slabs or loose wet on steeper terrain but we decided to avoid terrain traps and gullies on the descent.
Avalanche
No new slides of significance observed today. Only small, loose-wet sluffs.