Northern San Juan
AvalancheChris Dickson · Mar 7, 2025 · Northern San Juan
Snowpack
Between the two storms this week, warm temps and strong sun on Wednesday formed melt-freeze crusts up to 11,000' on east-facing slopes. Digging down on sunny slopes reveals numerous crusts sandwiched between more recent snowfall. The crust I am most interested in/concerned about is the one that was buried on Monday, March 3rd. On east-facing slopes, the crust is stout and instability tests resulted in propagating planar failures above this crust. On shadier slopes (like northeast aspects), the crust is thin or nonexistent, replaced by near-surface facets. This is my main layer of concern right now, with easy to moderate propagating failures below the crust or within the near-surface facets, depending on sun exposure. The deeper weak layer, buried by the Valentine's Day storm, has been unreactive in my recent pits below treeline. There is easily visible dust in the top 10cm of snow that coincided with peak winds on Thursday night.
Avalanche
I observed one Storm Slab avalanche in Oh My God Bowl, which appears to have released during the storm.