Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Colin Mitchell · Dec 18, 2020 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Clearing skies and warming temps through the day. Winds were calm at pass level, and radiation made it feel a bit warmer than it was.

Snowpack

The snowpack at this location was deeper and stronger than I expected. HS averaged around a meter. I found a mostly right-side-up snowpack with a couple of old M/F crusts and some basal facets. I didn't get propagation with ECT tests, and the PST I did on the basal facets was also un-concerning, PST 40/100 SF. That being said, there were several loose dry avalanches that ran pretty far and one soft slab that ran down the 'I' gully near my pit and came within 200' of the road. All of these were within the new snow and did not step down.

Avalanche

Several long running loose snow slides and a bunch of tiny ones from the rocks at the top of the paths. The most significant was a small soft slab that started mid-path and ran down onto the apron where I was working. All of these were confined to the new snow and likely ran last night or early this morning.