Southern San Juan
AvalancheMatt Huber · Jan 9, 2024 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful crisp January day. A slight west wind was pushing snow over the edge on The Cousin.
Snowpack
The route up covers mostly south-half aspects, zero signs of instability could be found. Near treeline as I wrapped onto shadier and northerlies, very minor cracking and one small collapse was felt. The collapse was where a stiff lens of wind slab had developed just below ridgeline. The total snowpack depth is 130-180 cm at treeline with about 80 cm of storm snow. At the storm snow interface, Extended Column Tests fail at isolation on a now buried surface facet layer. The columns are not propagating due to the low density of the storm snow.
Avalanche
Remnants of countless, small D1-D1.5 storm slab avalanches can be seen along all aspects and elevations. Most ran during the day 1/7 and have filled back in.