Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Apr 2, 2016 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful spring day. Day started cool, but temperatures quickly warmed, winds were light out of the north. Strong solar was observed on S and east aspects.
Snowpack
Warm temperatures and strong solar radiation have settled out recent storm instabilities, but initiated a wet avalanche problem. Today we traveled on S-SE-E-NE-N-NW slopes. On all but northerly slopes the new snow has settled quickly and was showing signs of warming. On south facing slopes there is no evidence of new snow and a 3cm melt-freeze crust has formed at all elevations. On low angle slopes we were able to crack the surface snow as it warmed. Loose Wet activity was observed on east and south facing slopes above treeline today while the snow on all aspects showed signs of warming at lower elevations. Snow on North facing slopes was cold and dry and showed little signs of instability.
Avalanche
Multiple D1 Loose-wet avalanches on South and East slopes.