Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Jan 26, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Calm and sunny.
Snowpack
About two inches of new snow fell overnight in Brooklyn's area. The snowpack in the Brooklyn's is thin and weak on exposed slopes, but I am assuming deeper in the gullies. Where snow depth is less than 1 meter, I observed a mixture of crust and facets. The firmest curst sat just below the new snow and was challenging to set a ski edge into in areas. Digging above Brooklyn's B on a west-facing slope, around 11,000 feet less than a meter of snow was found. The snowpack consisted of a few inches of snow over facets, rounding facets, percolation columns, and crusts. It appears free water has made it almost halfway through the snowpack but polled, creating a crust, and smaller facets are developing around that crust. Compression tests produced moderate failures on this crust/facet combination around 30 cms from the surface, but Extended Column and Propagation Saw tests did not snow worrisome results at this time. As the season progresses, we will have to watch how a slab develops above this weak snowpack.
Avalanche
A few harmless long running new snow loose slides observed from steep rocky terrain.