Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnn Mellick · Dec 13, 2015 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Chilly start this morning, though warming through the day with lots of sun. Strong NNE winds 20-30+ with gusts 40-65mph above treeline. Winds were strong and gusty well below treeline as well.
Snowpack
New snow was not very slabby and did not add quite enough weight to substantially stress the snowpack in below treeline areas. New snow was well bonded to the old snow surface, likely due to warm temps at the beginning of the storm. Also noted was a diffuse dust layer at the old/new snow interface. This came in with the strong southwest winds that preceded our last storm. Strong northerly winds were moving lots of snow around this morning. Some northerly faces looked stripped back to old hard slab... Winds even reached below treeline, stiffening surface snow in more exposed locales.
Avalanche
No new slab avalanches noted- just a handfull of long-running sluffs.