Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Jeff Davis Mike Barney · Mar 1, 2021 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Clear skies, calm winds, and warming temperatures throughout the tour.

Snowpack

Southernly slopes had a stout surface crust from ambient warming and sun. Breaking through the crust revealed a cold, shallow snowpack consisting of a mixture of crusts and facets. The recent winds have done a number to the snow surface at upper elevations and open slopes below treeline. We observed a 20 cm wind stiffened surface on a north slope near treeline. We avoided smooth open slopes as a wise man or woman once said, never ski cut hard slab! In a snowpit below treeline on a northeast aspect just below 12,000 feet, large facets deep in the snowpack continue to produce propagating failures on Extended Column Tests. Day after day, it continues to be harder to trigger(ECTP 29, ECTP 30), but the way the blocks jump off the column is an indicator of an avalanche's size a failure would produce.

Avalanche

No new avalanche activity observed.