Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeremy Yanko · Nov 29, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Very calm with mild temperatures compared to the previous few days.
Snowpack
I found an HS of 42cm at ~12,500ft comprised of mostly faceted grains top to bottom with an occasional splash of preserved Surface Hoar to cap off the semi-unsupportable 4F- hardness snowpack in our area. A few hasty hand pits revealed a Melt-freeze crust at ~15cm with 3-4mm facets below and 1mm facets above. The crust formed likely in mid October but was not consistently found in my travels with the assumption it had largely decomposed over the last month. audible collapsing of the snowpack in previously undisturbed areas was found but only found visible cracking on a steep test-slope where that slab failed slow and arrested. This area saw a good handful of natural D1/1.5's during the last storm appearing to have failed at the 11/24 interface.
Avalanche
D1/1.5 activity estimated to have occurred 11/25 during the last storm.