Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeremy Yanko, Chris Bilbrey · Nov 19, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Partly cloudy and light winds gusting above 20 mph. It was a comfortable 32F around 12,000 feet. Overcast skies later in the afternoon with darkening skies to the north as we exited the mountains.
Snowpack
Fairly consistent snow depths (80-120cm) found in concave terrain features on NE at 12,000-12,800ft. Surface conditions were erratic, yielding ~25cm of textured near surface facets or shields of P+ wind slabs. The upper half of the pack reveals 2 layers of concern within the top 50 cm's. The lower half, below the mid October storms, the pack has a good body of faceted rounds resting on top of small layer of clustered depth hoar(See Pit). We found a fully faceted 40-50cm snowpack on north aspects at and below tree line. It was mostly supportable on skis but easy to sink your boot to the ground.
Avalanche
No evidence of previous activity.