Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Jason Bushey ยท Mar 11, 2020

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Weather

Warm and wet, snowing in morning with no meaningful accumulations or loading. broken clouds toward the end of the day. Freezing line seemed around 11.5 to 11.8.

Snowpack

Faceting in the top 50-60cm of snow below treeline on north facing that was more pronounced in rocky and densely small treed areas. Open areas 40cm ski pen facet with little slab formation btl. Still found mostly full depth faceting in the alpine in shallow (<1m) rocky areas. These will be more of a problem with a larger snow load. Avoided NE aspects in alpine as a small wind slab seemed to be sitting on a firm bed surface. Probably would expect loose wet btl tomorrow and solars.

Avalanche

Lots of roller balls at the end of the day on all aspects including north. A lot of rocky steep faces shed soft loose avalanches in d1 category.