Northern San Juan
AvalancheScott Toepfer · Apr 23, 2016 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Vicious southwest winds made standing at 13,000 feet difficult. Clouds built gradually until about noon when they lowered and darkened, with developing snow showers. Lightning about 2 PM, then short heavy squalls of S2. These squalls brought ~1 inch of new snow with pinkish red dust. Skies cleared at 8 PM
Snowpack
Firm M/F crust made travel quick. Signs of recent activity, ((April 14 to 19 storm cycle) larger avalanches on north and east aspects. Multiple small WLNR1D1 on all aspects, running from steep rocky terrain from post storm thaw cycle. Saturday's cooler weather temporarily locked things up again.
Avalanche
Mid-April snow and wind built Wind Slab avalanche problem on easterly aspects above treeline. Some impressively wide propagation. Post storm cycle thaw aided in a large Wet Slab avalanche on a north aspect starting at ~ 12,700 to 13,000 feet. Wide crown, varying depths...may have initially triggered as a Wind Slab avalanche? But debris held wet character.