Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Zach Taylor · Nov 29, 2015 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Mostly cloudy and cool, becoming cold in the afternoon w/ gusty winds out of the SW that were strong enough to load leeward slopes. Snowfall increased over the day with minimal accumulations in the morning and moderate accumulations in the afternoon.

Snowpack

The snow surface on all aspects traveled was comprised of stellar and decomposing snow crystals. One quick hand pit on a NE aspect at approximately 10,800' revealed a couple inches of basal facets topped by two 1-4 finger density slabs sandwiching a layer of buried NSFs. Above that was just new stellars and decomposing crystals. Seemed typical of this time of year to us. No stability tests were done. No cracking, collapsing or whumping were observed on today's tour.

Avalanche

No signs of recent avalanche activity were observed but visibility was poor most of the day.