Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Mar 20, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Strong winds near and above treeline kept temperatures cool in the alpine, but at lower elevations it was another hot day. Skies were mostly cloudy.
Snowpack
Strong southerly winds picked up overnight and continued through the day. Winds buffed the snow surface, and during the morning hours, snow was seen blowing off peaks but not efficiently loading. The buffed snow surface created pizza box traveling conditions but did not increase the overall hazard in the areas traveled. The influence of the recent warm day and ample sunshine was observed in the form of rollerballs, melt-freeze crusts, and loose wet avalanche activity. Today, these surface crusts were slow to break down in the alpine as the winds kept it cold, but at lower elevations, the snow surface was sticky and wet on all aspects by mid-day. Dry snow is isolated to protected terrain features and northerly facing slopes near and above treeline. Digging in Delta bowl, I found a strong mid-pack with weaker snow near the ground. The snowpit was on a northeast-facing slope around 12,600' over the ski area boundary. The snowpack height was ~140cm's and last week's storm that brought ~30" to the Telluride area made up the top 50 cms. Extended Column tests did not show propagation on any layers, but a Compression Test produced ahard failure on the facets above the ground. No Collapsing/Cracking isolated to refrozen snow surface.
Avalanche
Widespread Loose Wet avalanche activity likely from March 18th and 19th. All avalanches were Small in size and many running on an old dust layer.