Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Bill Nalli · Nov 2, 2019 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Clear skies led to a crisp morning with a slight temperature inversion in most valleys. Light winds and warmer air aloft moving into the region are creating nice fall weather. Valley temps have rebound into the low 50's by afternoon.

Snowpack

The late October storms have given the mountains a fresh white coat that seems deep enough to stick around for the rest of the season. Snow depths (HS) are greater in the northern half of the range and the further south you go the more bare ground you encounter, even on the shadier North half of the compass. South facing slopes are melting back to the ground very quickly (see pic 5). The snow on the shady aspects however is continuing to facet and get weaker and in most places deep enough to connect across slopes to become our first, future, weak layer. It is possible to find small isolated terrain features that could hold shallow wind slabs on top of this older weak snow that could be triggered by a skier, but one would have to really work hard to be on skis in these locations due to the overall shallow, thin coverage getting there. A ride in this kind of coverage could easily result in injury. Pics show general snow coverage.

Avalanche

None