Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Feb 15, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Mostly clear. Moderate to strong southerly (SW) wind. Temperatures above freezing at pass level and 40's in the gorge mid-day.
Snowpack
General impression of the 550 paths just above the highway; thin and weak on shady slopes and thin and crusty on sunny slopes. Lower elevation slopes have started the spring transition and many slopes continue to melt. Digging in Brooklyn's M and Brooklyn's B HS ranged from 20-85 CM's. Both pits consisted of all facets and had a 1 finger layer surrounded by 4 finger layers closer to the surface and near the ground. Areas were the snowpack was thinner large grain depth hoar was observed. No free water. The surface snow will not hold much of a load but thinking it would a larger load to see things step down. One thing of note with the Brooklyn's is the start zones are thin but gullies have plenty of snow. No Cracking or Collapsing observed today.
Avalanche
Small loose sluffs were easily triggered as I skied down on any slope steeper than about 35 degrees.