Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Susan Hale · Jan 23, 2016 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Very warm today. RMP reached 44F around 1:00. Mostly sunny till about 1:30 when thin cloud cover rolled in from the south. Winds increased with cloud cover.

Snowpack

Warm-up has done a good job of settling the pack. On colder aspects the midpack has gained a lot of strength and the recent new-snow has settled nicely. Surfaces from E-S-W all have 1cm thick but fragile crusts. Also noted facets and well developed RR grains on all the southerly aspects (SE-S-SW). Steeper sunny aspects are roughed up with rollers or shallow sluffs. Also some slab releases on a few of those warmer aspects (see aval) Northerly slopes are still cold. Pow has settled and is bouncy supportive.

Avalanche

Shallow slab avalanche releases from sunny aspects - seen today but likely occurred with yesterday's warm-up.