Southern San Juan
AvalancheMichael Remke · Jan 20, 2019 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Bedrock Creek Basin 10,396' North-Northeast Aspects Sunny and warm (34F).
Snowpack
Snowpack was 250-300 cm in depth and consisted of a fresh dusting of 10-15cm of light sterllar dendrites that had fallen on 30-40cm of wet storm snow. The wet storm snow sat on a small soft layer over another 40-50 cm slab of older storm snow. Below this layer was another 50 cm of a stiff slab from early January. All of this sitting on 20-30 cm of depth hoar.
Avalanche
We observed recent avalanche activity on all aspects, including buried debris from the previous storm and activity from the current storm. On northerly aspects slabs were breaking in the top 40-60 cm of snow and in the higher elevations it appeared wind slabs were contributing to slope failure. We encountered slide debris from the previous storm cycle buried under the most recent storm snow that was 10-15 feet deep. The debris slide in a northerly aspect in relatively dense trees and was R2D2, only breaking small trees. We observed natural slope failures on convexities on north-north east aspects. These failures were cracking and collapsing under the weight of storm snow (old cracks) or fresh cracking under the weight of a skier jumping. These cracks were 40-60 cm deep failing underneath the storm slab. It seems the warm, wet snow was heavy but also bonding well to old layers and thus slopes that were failing and collapsing were not sliding, however, the weight of wind effected snow or a skier could likely cause slopes to slide.