Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Rachel Landis · Jan 10, 2016 · Southern San Juan

Weather

Cold and clear; Daytime temps ranged from -4F to 27 throughout the day; By noon, NE winds had picked up to 5-10mph near and above TL

Snowpack

Solar aspects expressed notable solar gain over the course of the day-- skiied lots of hot pow. Dug two pits at 11,000 on 160 aspect. 120 cm in depth. The top 40cm were comprised of the two recent storm slabs, marked by a density break. While there were a couple of thin (2mm) solar crusts tucked in there, our biggest layer of concern was found at 60cm-- a 3cm thick melt/freeze crust that had 1-2mm facets resting above and below. Not much action at this layer: ECTN; CTM20Q3...that said, my partners down the hall had complete propagation on 1 ECT and partial on another. NE aspects were still cold;NE aspects above TL showed strong wind etching/stripped; SW loaded No Sx of instability throughout the tour-

Avalanche

Several natural slab releases (D1) on SE aspects above and near TLin the Madden cirque. All broke at convexities or rocky prominences. We were a ridge over, but crowns looked like they broke in the new storm snow We also spotted a couple of loose, dry sloughs above TL coming off of rocky bands on E-SE-S aspects by the end of the day Saw one old crownline on the NE aspect below TL; R3D2; broke in storm slab