Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Jasper THompson · Feb 14, 2019 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Moderate Snowfall throughout the afternoon. Moderate winds in the parking lot. Light winds on the ascent. Light NW winds near treeline.

Snowpack

Over the past days we have found near surface facets on southerly aspects. They were on the pre storm surface, as well as, buried along side crust layers. Today we found the interface between near surface facets and the storm snow to be reactive on a treeless below treeline NW slope. Cracks 1cm wide and 20cm long easily propagated with the weight of a skier in this specific location. We observed a collapse near treeline on a south aspect.

Avalanche

None observed. Alpine visibility was obscured. We did not observe a wind slab problem NTL on northerly nor southerly slopes.