Northern San Juan
AvalancheMaddie Crowell · Jan 17, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Obscured sky conditions, snow started 0840 varying periods S1-S2. 15-20F Air temp. Moderate west winds, with strong gusts. New snow accumulation for the day ~10cm.
Snowpack
Varying HS 10cm-120cm. Rocks and grass still visible in places. Fresh, soft snow on surface and a few spots with isolated drifting on road cuts.
Avalanche
Group of 5 skied from Opus Hut at 11:55am. Skier 1 skied a short pitch down into a treed area (150ft vert). After communicating with Skier 1 about conditions, skier 2 told the rest of group that they would ski the slope and play it through. Skier 2 proceed to ski the entirety of the run top to bottom (700ft vert), they stopped on the second road cut which is the ascent track to Opus from the Silverton side. Skiers 1, 3, 4 and 5 regrouped just below where Skier 1 had initially stopped and proceed to pitch the rest of the run out, due to poor visibility and a decision to maintain group continuity. After a few pitched out sections, the rest the group skied the final 250ft of vert down to the road one at a time. When Skier 5 approached the road they made a hard turn and slowed down at a convexity, in doing so the slope released 10ft below them. The rest of the group had stationed themselves in a safe area on the road with no overhead and when the avalanche released no one was in harms way. The avalanche propagated on a micro-feature that was a convexity. It was a wind-loaded east facing pocket that had a 3.5ft deep crown. When the initial mass of the avalanche crossed the road, snow below the road began to fracture and another slab released a and more snow was carried into the micro gully below the road.