Northern San Juan
AvalancheScott Toepfer · Dec 14, 2014 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Some clearing south of Silverton, Stayed obscured north of Silverton. Winds increased in the afternoon from the north. Some plumes visible off Grand Turk
Snowpack
New snow from Saturday night in the 10 to 12" range along the Highway 550 corridor. New snow fell onto a variety of old snow surfaces and some bare ground. Saturday night activity caused primarily due to high precip intensity, and that it fell onto an old snow surface with weak faceted grains. Not enough load where we looked to really get slabs to break to deeper persistent weak layers.
Avalanche
Kendall Mountain, Silverton side. Crown height & top elevation hard to see due to poor lighting, estimating about 24 inch crown & start zone elevation of 12,400 ft? The fracture started just lee of a side/cross loaded gully from Saturday nights SW winds. Path has a general NW aspect, but loading and initial fracture were more northeast facing