Northern San Juan
SnowpackAndrew Temple · Nov 12, 2012 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Broken sky with light orographic snow and moderate winds from the NW.
Snowpack
Went for a tour up the north side of the battleship to see how the high elevation Northerly aspects were shaping up and to see if we could find any depth hoar/reactive slabs. Midway up the slope while traveling on a windswept rib our route took a slight aspect change onto an area with October snow at the ground and we remote triggered two slides, 80-150 ft. away. They were both small and pockety with 1-3' crowns and only 40' wide running 50' down slope. Lack of a good bed surface and ground roughness kept them from running far. Crown profile showed a 2' deep F-4F slab resting on a 4" of depth hoar from October. Impressive propagation potential displayed despite the relatively shallow DH. Deep slab instability lurks. Hazard observed: Low with pockets of Con on N aspects near and above TL.