Northern San Juan
AvalanchePatrick Ormond · Mar 23, 2019 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Broken skies, at times obscured by low clouds and snow Snowing S-1, seemed like convective showers, minimal accumulation during the day light NW winds, gusting moderate. light blowing snow
Snowpack
30-35cm HST sitting on a variety of old snow surfaces. Northerlies had NSF at the old/new snow interface. Solar aspects had a supportable crust. The new snow seemed well bonded to the crust.
Avalanche
The storm snow was touchy on steep rollovers and ski cuts on steep (40*) northerly rollovers produced numerous D1 avalanches BTL and NTL. We intentionally triggered one D2 that snapped branches on trees. All avalanches were in the storm snow, 30-35cm deep. Hazard rating today was on the low end of Considerable at all elevations, with human triggered avalanches likely, though we didn't observe any new naturals other than dry loose.