Southern San Juan
AvalancheMatt Huber Becs Hodgetts · Mar 26, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Snowfall continued for the entire trip with an inch of new snow accumulating over the 2 hours we were out. Southwest winds previously drifted new snow into 50-65 cm drifts on northeast terrain features, but only light drifting was occurring during the trip. Temperatures stayed cold enough for new snow to remain cold and dry.
Snowpack
The 24 hour snowfall accumulated to 14 inches below treeline, with a storm total for the past 72 hours of 19 inches and 2.0 inches of snow water equivalency. Very soft storm slabs developed on northeast-facing slopes, near treeline. These were only reactive where winds drifted and stiffened the fresh snow, easily triggered with skis on test slopes but we could not produce propagating results with extended column tests.
Avalanche
We were able to intentionally trigger small storm slab avalanches on slopes where winds drifted recent snow.