Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Dec 20, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Clouds built from the south, creating overcast skies by early afternoon. Winds light out of the southwest and temperatures mild, in the low 30's.
Snowpack
Most of my travel was on CR 361 and CR 26A. I started at around 9,000 feet and traveled to about 11,500 on the shoulder of United States Mountain. The snowpack at lower elevations is thin. Many sunny slopes are back to bare ground, even at upper elevations. On shady slopes below 11,000 feet, the snowpack has faceted throughout, and isolated columns of snow just crumbled under the shovel during snowpack tests. Above 11,000 on the mid-pack slab is cohesive enough to produce propagating failures at the top of the facet layer near the ground. When the snow columns failed, the block would drop and slide off the remaining snow. Recent warm temperatures created curst on many surfaces, and large Surface hoar observed in flat and protected areas.
Avalanche
Some remints of old avalanche activity, but nothing of note.