Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnn Mellick Chris Bilbrey · Apr 17, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cool with strong north-westerly winds to start. Sunny with decreasing winds and mild temps by the PM.
Snowpack
New snow totals range from 2" to 5" in the Red Mt Pass area, with the most snow on lee slopes (east through north) near and above treeline. There has been a modest amount of loading and drifting of recent snowfall in the alpine zone with shallow wind slabs on lee and cross loaded terrain. A 1” to 2" stout refrozen crust exists below snowfall this week. It seems as if a big warm-up over a couple days is needed for the crust to start to break down. Lesser amounts of snow fell at the lower elevations and south of RMP, so the avalanche danger there remain largely unchanged. Outside of minor cracking in deeper drifts along the skin track, we didn't observe any signs of unstable snow.
Avalanche
Lots of harmless roller balls in the new snow. Some long running loose wet slides from very steep rocky terrain (Commodore).