Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Jason Bushey · Dec 26, 2018 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Calm, warm with no wind. Breaking clouds and no precipitation measured through the day.

Snowpack

HS ranged from 100-130cm on E to NE aspects, with more on previously loaded areas. No major loading occured below treeline from 12/25 storm, but previous storm seems to have loaded NE faces. On test slopes, some instability was noticed with a collapse at 35 degrees and cracking, but no movement. Also slab property was less observed with new snow, but some hand pit results created Q1 results on the 20cm new snow.

Avalanche

Skier triggered, unintentional avalanche occurred at 11,100' on ENE aspect. Crown ranged from 30-50cm and broke to the ground. Was 100' and ran 400' of vertical. R2 D2 and occurred on new storm slab layer.