Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Bilbrey Mike Barney · Dec 17, 2020 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Cool overcast day with generally light winds along ridgelines. Around 1:30 pm, periods of moderate southwest winds developed but did not contribute to much drifting.

Snowpack

About half the snowpack is the snow that fell on 12/11. This snow is light in fluffy still below and near treeling but where it has been touched by the wind we observed collapsing and cracking. We had easy test results in our pit and the underlying facets are not going anywhere, and will continue to be a problem with more wind and snow.

Avalanche

Observed a few skier-triggered soft slab avalanches that appear to have run in the last storm cycle. One fresh slide at the top of Nevada Gulch that we thought ran naturally in the last day or two, but reported as triggered from the ridge earlier in the day by another party (coded in separate observation).