Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeremy Yanko · Mar 15, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Quite warm, very calm in the alpine into mid afternoon.
Snowpack
East/Southeast facing oriented route. A breakable 1f- 3cm crust formed on the surface in last 24 hours but quickly softened near treeline by 11am. Found several drifts on and near the ridgeline saddles or cross-loaded catchments that were filled with 20" of cold hollow feeling snow. These drifts sat on a firm crust and were unreactive to skier pressure throughout. Was able to initiate very small and loose-wet activity on steep SE slopes but mostly the surface stayed glued together over the old crust. Dug a pit at 12,264 ft on an E/SE aspect 37 degree slope. Ski Pen:15cm Boot Pen: 28cm. The late February/March storms developed 3 crust layers sandwiched between a 4F over 1F slab that sits 75cm over the "drought" 2/21 layer at this site. No signs of instabilities were observed other than wet-snow hazard increasing by 3pm.
Avalanche
2 separate natural avalanches off the NW saddle of Trico Peak estimated to have ran around 3/9 from recent wind-loading.