Northern San Juan
AvalancheAmy Pertuz · Feb 23, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Snow showers to S4 on an off all day continuing into the evening. Winds were not felt at lower elevations
Snowpack
HST from 20-34" Ouray to Thistledown. The dust layer at the bottom of this storm snow measures 3cm in this location has faceted and is very reactive under even modest amounts of storm snow. It is possible to remote trigger this layer, even with very soft storm slab.
Avalanche
Widespread en echelon cracking and storm slab avalanches started failing on the dust layer at the bottom of this storm snow on Tuesday, and many slopes with cracks had then avalanched by Wednesday. This includes slopes which do not typically avalanche, very small breakovers, and road cuts. On an E aspect BTL, I collapsed a large area and remote triggered some small slopes and gully banks nearby when I was digging a hand pit to assess new snow. This happened when I placed my hand onto the crust underneath the dust layer with minimal weight while I was brushing the sides of the hand pit with my other hand. The entire area collapsed on a deeper layer of facets under the crust, approximately 80 cm deep. The remote triggered slides failed on this deeper layer. They were D1 on aspects ranging from SE to E but they were small slopes not capable of producing larger avalanches.