Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Feb 1, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm temperatures under partly cloudy skies. Sun never really popped today like forecast. Light northwest winds near and below treeline, but gusty and stronger in the alpine.
Snowpack
The snowpack below treeline in our unmitigated highway paths is around just over a meter deep, faceted, weak, but lack a slabs. The exception to this observed today was on southeast facing slopes in exposed areas. On these slopes an old wind slab persists in the top 50 cm's of the snowpack. I observed this slab to be discontinuous and stubborn in long column tests. Slopes that had a snowpack less than 70 cm's the snowpack is entirely faceted and I was wallowing on the ground while breaking trail. Any slope that catches sun at lower elevations has a crust on the surface. Even with today's warm temperatures very few signs of wet avalanche hazard observed. No cracking or collapsing.
Avalanche
No new avalanche activity observed.