Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Jan 27, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cold and sunny in the morning, with clouds moving in around midday. By mid afternoon skies were overcast with an occasional flurry.
Snowpack
Around 50 cm of settled recent snow on top of a right-side up base of rounding facets. Directly underneath the snow from our recent storm, was a layer of facets formed between 1/19 and 1/23, sitting on an old melt-freeze crust. This was the layer of concern. Multiple long-column tests on this layer did not produce any concerning results. ECTN15 & 17, PSTend 85/100. Some minor very isolated cracking around our skis, otherwise no signs of instability noted during our tour.
Avalanche
One large slide on a southeast aspect in Minnesota Gulch, and a couple of small ones on the steep east-facing roller on the north side of the Prospect drainage. All appeared to have run during the storm and were confined to storm snow.