Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Dickson · May 19, 2017 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Patchy sun and clouds. Temps in the 20's. No wind.

Snowpack

This was my third day in a row skiing in this area. The storm had deposited several inches early in the week which were blown around, crossloading gullies. Then we got the big dump of roughly 8" Wednesday into Thursday, then another 6" on Thursday afternoon into Thursday night in the Sheep Mtn area. Friday morning dawned calm, with little evidence of wind. Unfortunately, there was more morning sun that I had expected and the new snow was quickly heating up due to intermittent sun.

Avalanche

After skiing my primary objective with only minor sluffing from the new snow (a north facing shot at higher elevation), I decided to traverse over and ski this gully. I dropped into this line, skied about halfway down, and got caught by a wave of my own sluff. It knocked me off my feet and carried me about 100 yards downslope. Luckily, this line is low consequence with a huge apron below, but still, this was an eye-opener!