Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Aaron Carlson · Jan 1, 2019 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Light snow until 12/12:30pm. Clearing. Light wind

Snowpack

Anvil Trees - Upon our ascent we noticed wind loaded features on the south aspects. On the northern side of the compass we observed 6-10" of new snow sitting on facets to the ground. There was no slab to speak of in the trees we skied. Commodore Gulch - fresh windslabs and cornices were building and sensitive. observed a lot of shooting cracks from the tips of our skis. Had some collapsing and were able to trigger several small avalanches with cornice falls.

Avalanche

We triggered several small avalanches by breaking off cornices and ski cutting small rolling terrain features. All of these consisted of the freshly formed wind slab. They did not step down.