Northern San Juan
AvalancheJesse Dudley · Jan 6, 2019 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Mostly cloudy, warm.
Snowpack
Thick layer of facets at the ground, snow surface had stiffened considerably with N winds from a few days ago.
Avalanche
Triggered a pocket about 80' wide and 1.5' deep on a fairly small but steep convexity, ran only about 40 vertical feet on facets at the ground before petering out in flatter terrain. Skier triggered, R2D1.5 on NE aspect at about 11,100 feet elevation. No one caught or carried. Could not fit whole avalanche width in photo. Triggered an avalanche in same path in December, but did not propagate nearly as far. After triggering the avalanche, started experiencing more whumphing as the sun warmed the snowpack and temps began rising more significantly. Also observed a fairly fresh natural avalanche from afar on E aspect around 2pm, estimated R2D2, probably wind slab.