Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Feb 27, 2018 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Partly sunny skies and relatively warm. Southwest winds really picked up in the afternoon and started moving the little loose snow remaining in near and above-treeline elevations.
Snowpack
Winds have worked the snow above 11,000'. Many slopes in the alpine were stripped, the exception being NE-N-NW which were quite loaded. Westerly slopes in the alpine were either facets, windboard/thin wind slabs over facets, or bare ground. Not a big problem now, but poor structure for future events. Some bigger windslabs were visible in cross-loaded gullies and lee of larger terrain features on most aspects. Near-treeline slopes were holding more snow and more slabs than the alpine, with similar distribution and surface conditions. Below treeline had a 1 inch melt-freeze crust on all but due north aspects, which slowly transitioned to a wind crust as we approached treeline.
Avalanche
No fresh avalanches observed during our tour