Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Dec 24, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Breezy and a little chilly in the morning, with clear skies. Winds backed off in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Below treeline, the snowpack was largely unconsolidated facets and mixed forms with last night's snow on top. We found an old melt freeze crust at the 12/11 interface on sunnier slopes. North-facing test slopes around 38 degrees were easy to collapse, but did not run. HS averaged around 50 cm. Near treeline we traveled on mostly due west and some northwest aspects. The average HS was 70 cm. Several inches of snow fell yesterday and had been redistributed and packed by northwest winds. Drifts were up to a foot deep on leeward slopes. We encountered a soft, skiable wind crust in some open areas, but mostly soft slab conditions in the upper 30 cm. A supportable mid-pack slab could be felt with ski pole probing. We experienced widespread collapsing. First right around our skis, but as we ascended, we started to have large, rumbling collapse up to several hundred feet in diameter. As soon as we would ski off of one, we would trigger a new section.
Avalanche
No new avalanches observed