Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Jeremy Yanko · Feb 2, 2022 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Intermittent snow showers but mostly signs of an exiting storm. Steady light NW breeze with few gusts. Wintry feel again.

Snowpack

12-16cm/.4"SWE of light density snow overnight and into the early morning. A few isolated areas below treeline showed subtle wind effect with surface cracking localized underfoot. Generally poor bonding to all old snow interfaces on SE/E/NE/N aspects traveling between 10,400- 11,600ft. Needed another ~10cm and some wind to provoke more stability issues outside of steep Northerly-facing slopes where the new snow is easy to sluff and gouge into the top 25cm of near surface facets.

Avalanche

Several Loosed-Dry natural avalanches seen on nearby ridgelines initiating out of steep-rocky terrain. All nearing D1 or less in size. Able to engage fast moving Loose-Dry slides on 38 degree NE/E facing concavity start zone by working down ridgeline adjacent to path. Believe the slides were able to run faster and further due to an east-facing crust in the gut of the path.