Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis Chris Bilbrey · Mar 22, 2019 · Northern San Juan
Weather
A mixed bag of spring weather conditions today. Moments of sunshine with strong solar, to heavy snowfall up to an inch an hour. An estimated 10" of snow has fallen in the Red Mountain Pass area in the past 2 days. Southwest winds were light below treeline, but strong enough at upper elevations to move snow to leeward slopes.
Snowpack
The new snow from the past two days fell on a crust on many slopes below treeline. The crust was strong enough to hold the weight of a person. We were able to trigger small avalanches in the new snow, but only on steep rocky slopes. These small avalanches or sluffs would travel down the slope but did not gain much volume. We also observed a few small natural avalanches in US Basin that were triggered by snow falling off rocks. The snow on sunny slopes quickly warmed even though the sun only popped for a very short period of time.
Avalanche
Small avalanches in the new snow easily triggered on steep slopes. The carnage of the recent explosive and natural avalanche cycle is widespread. No avalanches in the new snow looked to have stepped down into older snow layers.