Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Mark Gober · Dec 20, 2010 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Cloudy,but not snowing. I had fairly good visibility in the alpine and could see peaks 15 miles to the north. Warm- near freezing, windy

Snowpack

In all 3 pits I dug, there was a Q1 failure 20cm below surface at the density change. CT, ST, ECT all failed there at 1 tap. Total new snow seemed to be in the 40cm range as this new stuff is settling fast. I tried on several 38 deg+ slopes to get them to avalanche, but could not even produce a crack. Also, I saw absolutely zero avalanches anywhere. This was the same for Susan on Coal Bank and Molas. I had decent visibility in the alpine as well. A surprise to me, but I don't deal in 15-20% snow very often. Abv TL on leeward slopes, the upper pack was a 1F- slab sitting on the low density from Saturday. I was supported by it on my skis, but boot pen broke right through to the bottom. Blw TL, this slab was 4F. It acted like it would support my skis, but then I would break through. I suppose it just needs more load to fail. Thought 2" H20 would have done it. I also stayed in fairly conservative terrain as I was solo.