Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Dickson · Jan 9, 2022 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Obscured skies all day with plenty of time in the clouds. Strong SW winds at the ridge top but winds died once we descended into the valley.

Snowpack

Very thin and wind-affected snowpack in Upper Bear Creek. Lots of slopes were scoured down to grass or talus. The wind has really hammered the upper basin with very variable snow depths and very firm wind board / breakable crust observed all over. The surface conditions didn’t soften until we got to treeline and below treeline. Dug on a NW aspect below the rocks at the top of the Hippy Roller and found a shallower snowpack than other areas in the NSJs, with about 50cms of depth hoar at the ground. The midpack here is also less stiff, and we got a CT12SP on a crust/facet combo layer, and a ECTP17 on the same interface…

Avalanche

Observed many old crowns, and a big debris piles coming out of Nellie and lower Revy Bowl. Debris filled the valley bottom and covered the creek.