Northern San Juan
SnowpackBen Pritchett · Jan 20, 2011 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Partly Cloudy skies. Chilly (teens). Decreasing winds from Moderate North winds in the AM to Light West to Northwest winds in the PM.
Snowpack
Significant recent wind effect above treeline from NW winds. Cornices were fairly fat, sharp and predictably touchy. Wind slabs evident below most leeward ridges and prominent cross-loaded features above treeline. Snowpack was super variable, from crust/sastrugi topped depth hoar on talus, to nearly supportable thin wind slabs, to meaty pencil hard wind slabs, polished North facing old wind slabs, to sheltered powder. We avoided traveling on recent wind slabs, choosing to stick near ridges and scoured areas above treeline. We dropped a 20' wide section of cornice on an East aspect at 11,900' and triggered a HS-ACi-R1/D2-O, 2-4' deep, 120' wide, running out of site (at least 300' vertical, likely it benched out around 11,200').