Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Dec 17, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cool with light winds and mostly clear skies.
Snowpack
I traveled south, east and north aspects below treeline. The snowpack in the forested northerly and easterly aspects was around a meter deep with a solid mid-pack. Boot pen was around 35 cm. Probing in these areas, I found some places with old faceted snow underneath the slab, but they were isolated to steep, north-facing slopes. I did not dig here, but probing revealed a 90 cm slab 1f increasing to P hard with depth, over the old snow which felt F-hard/cohesionless. I couldn't collapse these slopes with repeated jumps. No signs of instability observed. I descended a sun-exposed east-facing slope back to the pass, and found that despite the cool temperatures, there was enough solar input to make the snow surface moist-wet by mid afternoon. These slopes will have a crust on them tomorrow. My profile was from the meadows behind the Coal Bank weather station in a largely flat, aspect neutral area.
Avalanche
One small loose slide out of Henry Brown almost made the edge of the road.