Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnn Mellick Jeff Davis · Mar 10, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Overcast and cold with very light snowfall (S-1).
Snowpack
New snow over the past week has slowly added up to about 12" of settled snow below treeline. On east aspects we continue to see two main layers of concern: one below late Feb/early March warm up around 40 cms from the surface, the other at the interface of the drought layer and late February storms around 90 cms from the surface. New snow adds additional stress these two buried weak-layers but snowpack tests show the drought layer interface to be more reactive. Over the next few days the new snow will settle and stiffen. It is hard to know if that will make it easier to trigger an avalanche but guilty until proven otherwise. We did not experience any cracking or collapsing today. Digging on a southeast slope below treeline the snowpack is thinner and less reactive.
Avalanche
We saw evidence of widespread avalanching in this area (easterly terrain below treeline) during the late February cycle with crowns up to 3 feet deep. No new slides noted.