Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Travis Laverty · Jan 31, 2023 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

BKN all AM. Very cold with slight warmup before noon. Diamond dust early AM. Calm BTL/NTL with light NW wind. Minimal ridgeline transport. 4-6" new low density snow deposited with no wind at the end of the precip. Some wind effected snow from overnight westerly wind.

Snowpack

S, BTL. HS 100cm. Several thin, friable crust layers throughout. Upper-most crust is 40cm down. CTH Q2 on this layer. ECTN hard in upper 40cm df layers. Top 10cm new low density snow. W, BTL. HS 160. PS 10, PF 30. ECTP mod down 40cm on buried 3-5mm SH. N, NTL. HS 150. PS 15, PF 40. ECTP21 down 20cm at n/o interface. Basal 40cm layers are an ice lens on the ground with 3-5mm 4F DH above. 1F midpack with multiple old, thin windboard layers throughout.

Avalanche

D1 soft windslabs on E. Large, mature cornice builds on NE. Evidence of older (greater than 1 wk) very large slides out of westerly and easterly ATL.