Southern San Juan
AvalancheMatt Entz · Jan 14, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Snowing
Snowpack
Snowpack is still very touchy and with accumulating snow we have been able to ride more terrain. With each zone that we are riding for the first time this season, there is constant collapsing of the snowpack and shooting cracks on all slopes. The snow from the last few days along with the previous 2 storms is developing a stiffening slab above an incredibly weak layer of snow to the ground. It is getting harder each day to break through the slab with our machines as well as by foot.
Avalanche
On Saturday (1-12), we observed one very small slide remotely triggered right off of trail 360 below treeline by a snowmobile. Later in the day around 1500 hours we remotely triggered a larger avalanche from quite a far distance with our snowmobiles. This avalanche was on a NE aspect and started near treeline on the ridge above Poage Lake. There were two of us riding our snowmobiles on low angle terrain just south of the lake. We stopped and noticed a large cloud of snow coming down the mountain in the distance and got to watch the avalanche run. This is an area that historically runs frequently and the snow moved through small trees below the slope. I would consider this an R2D2. As the weather cleared up a bit later in the day and visibility increased, we were able to enter the toe of the debris field from the east edge and get a better look. A steep open area directly above this spot had slid naturally during the storm a few days prior. We estimated the crown of the fresh avalanche at roughly 3 feet.