Northern San Juan
AvalancheAmy Pertuz · Jan 13, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Friday was clear and warm, with above-freezing temperatures extending towards tree line. Light winds
Snowpack
Warm temperatures helped to settle surface Friday, creating moist surfaces on lower elevation west and east-facing slopes, and south-facing slopes to tree line. Some wet-loose activity was seen on sunny slopes with rock bands in the afternoon. The December 27 drought layer ranges from 130 to 180cm below the surface in this area, and is increasingly difficult to impact near and below tree line. Above tree line, coverage is more variable, and the weak layer is not consistently buried as deeply. I was unable to provoke the 12/27 layer in tests on a NTL E facing slope but was able to get a propagating failure with hard taps (ECTP 28) on a west aspect near 11, 000ft, where the persistent weak layer was closer to the surface (130cm) I was able to find a faceted drizzle crust in this area ~70cm deep which likely formed during a warm spell on December 31st. This layer gave mixed results in tests, but it is still producing planar failures.
Avalanche
No new avalanches seen today