Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Amy Pertuz · Jan 24, 2020 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Calm winds near and below treeline. Mild temps Sun with scattered clouds turned to high thin cirrus in afternoon for a couple of hours of green housing, then clouds thickened and temps cooled later in the pm. Warm and sunny enough to affect southerly aspects and lower elevation east.

Snowpack

Small surface hoar persisted through the day in some protected places. Some surface wetting and wet loose on sunny aspects by afternoon. Shaded slopes retained cold snow. HS 160cm at 11,000ft on a N aspect. ~25cm storm snow fairly well bonded, despite some small near surface facets between it and the older snow. Midpack still has a fairly robust slab 4f+/1F- that is retaining it’s strength. Good surface conditions.

Avalanche

Wet loose and dry loose in places you might expect. Only recent slab seen on red mountain pass was in Commodore below cliffs, ENE.