Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Feb 27, 2019 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Bluebird morning gave way to overcast skies and light snow showers by afternoon. Winds increased throughout the day. Warm air temps, but snow stayed cool.
Snowpack
Above treeline slopes are highly wind-affected, sastrugi and slick windslabs dominated the higher terrain. Some soft snow was drifted on to north aspects, and was showing signs of faceting. Near treeline north aspects had about a foot of soft snow over a 1F+ slab. Wind crusts were found in many areas. Snow pack depth was well over a meter in these areas, and although we saw no signs of instability, a faceted layer down around 60 cm was easy to find with ski pole probing. We traveled mostly on east and north-facing aspects, and gave steep wind-loaded slopes a wide berth. Below treeline slopes had a thin melt-freeze crust anywhere with a southerly tilt.
Avalanche
No new activity observed