Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Ryan Van Nuys · Feb 14, 2023 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Limited Visibility, snowing light to moderately all day, light winds BTL, Winds moderate NTL. Temps falling through the day into the upper Teens

Snowpack

We found a generally supportive to traffic snow structure at elevations traveled between 9,00 feet and 11,000. A snow pit on an east aspect at 10,400 feet with a snow depth of 150 cm showed 15-20 cm of new snow, right side up, bonding well to a very pronounced melt freeze crust approx. 10cm thick. Below this melt freeze crust a 4f slab sitting on a very thin facet layer 50cm down, which failed in compression test(CT19), but showed no propagation in an extended column test(ECTN). Below this the mid pack progressed to 1f hardness, until the bottom 15-20cm which consisted of rounding large facets.

Avalanche

No recent avalanches, but evidence still visible of January slides in cut banks, convex terrain BTL.