Southern San Juan
AvalancheKrista Beyer · Feb 8, 2024 · Southern San Juan
Weather
S1 for the duration of the day, obscured skis, moderate southwest winds near treeline.
Snowpack
Wow, amazing what a couple of storms can do to a snowpack. We've come a long way from mid-January when the average snowpack was around one meter on Coal Bank. Now we have a snowpack that averages between 160-190cm below treeline and 190-210cm near treeline. The 55 cm of basal facets that caused the wild rumpus over the MLK weekend storm are now buried over a meter deep in many places. The mid-pack slab is gaining strength and new weak layers towards the surface are capturing our attention. Questions around the basal facets involve step-down potential and 'trigger-spots.' All this is to say, it feels different out there! We dug on a northeast slope near treeline. Pit tests revealed moderate failures within the new storm snow during compression tests. We received a hard propagating result on a very fine crust about 70 cm from the surface (ECTP21 @ 125cm). We also dug on a south-facing below treeline slope to look at the reactivity of the pre-February 2nd crust layer. Height of snow was about 160 cm and that crust layer was buried about 75cm from the surface. We received hard failures above that layer during a compression test, but no results on that layer during an ECT (ECTX @ 85cm).
Avalanche
Flat light made it hard to see, but it appeared as though there was debris at the bottom of the north shore cliffs. I couldn't see a crown line and the debris appeared to be covered in snow. My guess is a slide ran from the steep convexity above the cliffs sometime early on February 7th, during the high PI event. No photo taken due to lighting.