Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Dickson · Jan 11, 2023 · Northern San Juan

Weather

WINDY! Moderate WSW winds gusting strong throughout our quick morning tour. You could hear it raging on top of the ridgetops (sounded like a jet taking off). Small fresh cornices grew overnight and we saw evidence of them breaking naturally. They were also very touchy to ski pressure. New snow overnight 4-8" (low density blower) with significant wind deposition on E/NE slopes.

Snowpack

Dug a pit on East aspect BTL two days ago that is still representative of the snowpack in this area (now with 4-8" of low density snow on top). The New Year's storms have grown the BTL snowpack in Ophir to 120-150cms, with a 4F slab sitting over well-developed depth hoar near the ground. This pit resulted in a ECTP27 on the 11/29 PWL (depth hoar).

Avalanche

Observed a fresh natural avalanche below treeline on a steep W-facing convexity. From the size of the crown, it appeared to have failed on deeper weak layers (11/29 PWL likely). This terrain feature is prominent from adjacent terrain and likely recieved some wind loading, causing the release sometime overnight. SS-N-R2-D2, W, 11,300'.