Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Sheamus Croke · Jan 20, 2022 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Sub 5 degrees F before dawn. Felt cold. Low wind in the basin (0-5 mph), but signs of some wind (snow transport and pebbles falling down couloir) up on the ridges. No cloud cover. Finished before 9:15 am.

Snowpack

Overall super variable snow. A couple fluffy wind-deposited turns at the top, then a mix between barely breakable (w/ ski) 3-5cm thick hollow sounding wind buff on top 10-15 cms of slightly less dense facety snow, bombproof chatter, and grabby sastrugi all over a right side up pack underneath for the upper part of the couloir. Major avalanche debris and some crowns near the apron (I assume from the same cycle when all that stuff in Gemini bowl ripped, Mini Cooper sized blocks of debris from a crown just next to the bottom of the coulie, crazy!). Quality recycled pow in the lower angle sections all the way down to the creek on anything North. Bottom of couloir got swept hard (10-40cms of total snow there, grass and rocks sticking out). Around the old crown about 120-140 cm depth of mixed density but solid slab, 175cm depth 1/3rd of the way up the couloir with evident facet feels (probing) at the bottom. 260cm+ depth halfway up the couloir and higher with quite high density (challenging to submerge pole handle) no facet feels on the probe. Didn’t have time to dig around.