Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Dickson · Jan 9, 2022 · Northern San Juan

Weather

Bluebird skies with light winds. Stayed coldddd in the shade, but temps rose to above freezing in the sunshine. Snow surface seems to remain cold all day.

Snowpack

Toured up into a NE-facing alpine bowl, skinning up on deep avalanche debris from a widespread cycle in the area that occurred during the last storm cycle. Probing as I travelled up the debris, I found snow depths ranging from 250-350cms. I chose to ascend and descend on top of the supportable debris, which was topped with 6” of blower pow from yesterday/last night’s storm pulse. I dug on a E/SE aspect at 12,100’ and found 205cms of snow, with a right-side-up structure (F over 4F over 1F to the ground). No basal facets or depth hoar observed here. The midpack at this location was STOUT, and Extended Column Test did not produce any fractures or propagation (ECTX). Prying on the extended column eventually produced a failure close to the ground where a change in grain size occurred on 1F rounding facets.

Avalanche

Many old crowns on N and NE facing terrain. One crown in a wind-loaded area between cliffs looked to be close to 10ft thick. Some small natural activity also occurred last night with the new snow (R1-D.5, little 4” crowns).