Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey Jeff Davis · Mar 26, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Warm, sunny start with light southwest winds below 12,000 feet. Wind speeds increased as we gained elevation and were strong along ridge lines. Multiple days of warm and sunny weather have limited snow available for transport.
Snowpack
What a difference two weeks makes after an overall warmer weather pattern and high San Juan sun angles - snowpack has gained a lot of strength recently and signs of instability limited to surface snow. We traveled on north to east through south-facing slopes at all elevations. Below 11,000 feet, snowpack is making a quicker transition to a spring pack compared to higher elevations - snow near the surface is moist but cold nighttime temperatures with hard freezes is helping the snowpack handle recent warm temperatures. Loose wet activity on southerly-facing slopes were small with none noted in the alpine. Above 11,000 feet the snowpack is general dry on all aspects and alpine winds kept snow surfaces cool. A supportable melt-freeze crust existed on east to south-facing slopes where we traveled. Numerous rollerballs and pinwheels below treeline and we were able to trigger rollerballs while skiing through below treeline trees.
Avalanche
We found shallow wind slabs directly below more exposed ridge lines that were no deeper than a couple inches and only produced small, short running debris piles. They were reactive to the weight of a skier, predictable, and easy to manage. All slides were D1 or smaller.