Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Josh Hirshberg · Jan 29, 2015 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Overcast all day, but the sun made it through thin, high level clouds in the AM. Mostly calm to light wind w/ a few moderate gusts. Great visibility for cloudy skies. Could see from the Sawatch Mtns to the Elks to the Henry's in Utah. Cloud levels started to drop and become foggy by 2p.

Snowpack

Shallow snowpack. Many steep Srly slopes are very thin or melted out to ground. Solid overnight freeze. Minimal softening of snow surfaces above 11k. Also above 11k crusts were primarily due to sun melting surfaces. Any shaded slope was holding soft, dry snow.

Avalanche

Got a really good look around Yankee Boy, Governor, adjacent basins, and E side of San Sophia Ridge. Surprisingly little evidence of avalanche activity in the past 3 weeks. 2-3 very old Wet Loose up to D1.5 on Srly slopes above TL.