Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnn Mellick Josh Hirshberg · Dec 30, 2013 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Clear, seasonably cool with only a light breeze.
Snowpack
It has been quite a while since our last major loading event and the snowpack is largely settled and generally unreactive. While the snow structure remains poor in most areas (lots of persistent slab nr and abv tl), slides have become more and more difficult to trigger. W->N->E facing slopes below tl will become dangerous the fastest when we finally get new snow load even though the danger there is currently LOW (MOD near and above tl). All but very southerly slopes below tl are largely made up of faceted snow and are very weak.
Avalanche
This loose snow avalanche is an example of how weak northerly aspects are below treeline. Occurred on an extra weak and steep slope. Saw other slopes where surface snow would begin to sluff, but would stop w/o entraining older snow.