Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnonymous · Feb 3, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Sunny, cold, clear. Aspect was mostly north, northwest. Location was Maggie Gulch area. Elevation was about 10,800.
Snowpack
Aspect was mostly north, northwest. Location was Maggie Gulch area. Elevation was about 10,800. At the top of the run, we dug our poles down into the snow as far as possible, and felt a pretty weak layer close to the bottom. Besides that, there were a few inches of snow on top that was very sluffy and moved easily.
Avalanche
At the top, we did a ski cut across the top convexity, and immediately triggered a sluffy, top-layer avalanche that travelled down 100 feet and collected more sluff along the way. It was probably 15-20 feet wide. We were above the slide, skied down where it had just slid, and took a conservative route the rest of the way down. We didn't see any other signs of instability the rest of the run.