Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Feb 5, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cold and blustery. Skies varied from obscured to partly cloudy, little radiation getting through today.
Snowpack
We traveled east and southeast aspects near and below treeline. Any slopes with a southerly tilt had a supportable melt-freeze crust formed during warm weather last weekend. The effects of winds from earlier this week were pronounced near treeline and in open areas. Thin slabs would crack under ski pressure, but weren't propagating beyond our skis or moving downhill. Thicker slabs were unreactive. Two layers of facets were observed in the upper snowpack, one down about 50 cm that was buried early this month, and a more recent layer down about 20 cm and sandwiched between two crusts. The lower layer produced inconsistent CTM results and no results with ECT's. The upper layer produced consistent moderate results with CT tests but did not propagate with multiple ECT's. Below treeline where the snow depth was less than a meter the snowpack consisted of unsupportable facets beneath recently formed crusts, but deeper areas had a solid mid-pack
Avalanche
No new activity observed