Northern San Juan
AvalancheColton Frasier · Mar 12, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Partly cloudy skies and at times overcast. Light precipitation around noon, gusting light winds from S. Near but below freezing.
Snowpack
Snowpack height was around 150cm on a NTL south facing ridge. Dug a quick ECT to asses propagation potential as multiple hand pits all failed on isolation. Failure initiated on moderate loading steps, within new snow, and did not propagate across the column (ECTN13). No failures were noted on additional, non standard loading steps. The new snow had bonded well to an old and thick melt freeze crust. Rounding facets or decomposing fragments comprised most of our snowpack. Notably, small percolation columns and an ice crust were found in old snow buried ~70 cm.
Avalanche
Multiple small to large avalanches were observed on steep ATL north facing terrain in Georgia gulch, most likely failing within the past 48 to 72 hours. Small to large dry loose avalanches were observed, one triggering a larger storm slab that did not step down below new/old interface or cross terrain features.