Northern San Juan
AvalancheBrett Saville · Mar 28, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cloudy, windy, sunny.
Snowpack
Wet slide to the ground.
Avalanche
It was below tree line, I left the hut at around 4:30 pm and I usually take the south facing ridge line down to the road but it was pretty much bare of snow so I decided to hike over to the NE facing trees to get back to the road. There is a little gully at the very bottom a few hundred feet before the road. The trees are 28-30 degrees, but I cut up the gully wall to wait for my dog to catch up, which I would estimate was around 30-35 degrees. The gully wall broke just above me and carried me 15-20 feet down the slope until it mellowed out. I got buried up to my knees, I didn’t get caught in the slide where it went through some trees or it would have slammed me into them. I would say the crown was 20-30 feet wide, 1-2 feet deep and ran down 15-20 feet.