Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Mark Gober · Feb 27, 2013 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

clear, cool and calm

Snowpack

We were mainly on ESE terrain. Below TL the snowpack consisted of a couple of M/F crusts with facets in between and 24-36" in total depth. The new snow on surface was 6-8". As we approached TL depth increased but structure was similar with the addition of a wind slab at the top of the pack. This created a fairly reactive combo and we experienced one large rolling collapse creating cracks visible several hundred feet away. No avalanches were triggered by this collapse however. Because of the poor structure we chose to stay on conservative terrain and experienced no other collapses or significant cracking.