Northern San Juan
AvalancheChris Dickson · Dec 4, 2025 · Northern San Juan
Weather
The day dawned with very cold temperatures (-2 degrees F), but temperatures rose under clear blue skies and strong solar input. Some morning winds out of the north and northwest were observed pluming snow off the high peaks, but these winds calmed throughout the morning. By midday, sunshine was strong enough to create moist snow on the surface of south-facing slopes.
Snowpack
Without a slab atop the snowpack, I did not observe any signs of instability, such as cracking or collapsing, during my travels. The snowpack still generally lacks much "body". Unconsolidated fist-hard snow was found from the top to the bottom, making for deep trailbreaking. Snowpack depths ranged from 60 to 95 centimeters. I dug two pits: one near treeline at 11,000' and one above treeline at 11,600' on a northeast-facing slope. I got no propagation in any tests and did not identify any real layers of concern except for a thin and friable melt-freeze crust that formed during the Thanksgiving week dryspell and now sits underneath our recent snowfall. In the higher pit, this crust was absent, but the bottom layer of the snowpack is faceting. Right now, the facets remain small in size and are not a concern for the time being.
Avalanche
Numerous small Storm Slab and Loose Dry avalanches on nearly every aspect above treeline. The largest slab avalanche I saw featured a crown below some cliffbands that was almost 100' across, but only 6 inches deep.