Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnonymous · Jan 21, 2015 · Northern San Juan
Snowpack
Top of acid chute and mushroom chute, avy paths in the north facing trees north of Janes. North facing below treeline, HS 80-100cm, facets from to to bottom, .5mm-1mm at surface and 3-4mm at ground.
Avalanche
Loose dry avalanche skier triggered when we dropped in (45 degree slope), entrained a good amount of snow and scoured the snowpack to the ground, ran 300-400 feet. Probably large enough to be D2, it definitely could have dragged us through the trees and done some damage due to the steepness of the slope. We traversed off the slope back to Jane's due to ski quality considerations. Extremely unconsolidated snowpack tricked us into thinking the slope was safe. We had our slab goggles on and didn't respect the potential for loose dry avalanches on steep slopes with unconsolidated snow.