Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Susan Hale · Feb 7, 2015 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Warm and mostly sunny skies till 2:30 pm, when clouds moved in from the north. Felt only slight breeze and very warm sun. Air temp around 40F.

Snowpack

All along hwy seeing snow banks shrinking back from long dry spell. Noted dry patches on sunny aspects are growing daily, while snow-stake readings on protected areas have only dropped slightly. Snowpit in the Brooklyns (W aspect below TL) was typical for this path at this time of year -- A pile of very weak facets topped with several crust sandwiches from recent warm spells. Only the top 15cm was moist. Facets flowed out of the lower portion of the pit. This may not be typical of the structure up higher in the start zones - where there may be more exposure to wind/sun/rock. Likely thinner, variable and there may be more of a slab quality in these less protected locations.

Avalanche

No new avalanche activity observed.