Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Jan 5, 2024 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Mostly clear skies, cold temps, and very light winds. A few low clouds lingering around from yesterday's storm.
Snowpack
A thoroughly faceted snowpack varying from 30-60 cm in depth. Deeper areas were supportable to skis, but in thinner ones, ski penetration went to the ground. Some minor cracking right around my skis in isolated locations. The snowpack in the forest was largely as expected, composed of various types of facets with around 6 cm of new snow on top. The snowpack was right-side up, the hardest layer was the old, large-grained facets at the ground. Results from column tests were unremarkable. Visual inspection clearly showed that there was much less snow in the steep start zones than in the shaded, low-angle forested slopes I ascended, with lots of anchors and a somewhat discontinuous snowpack.
Avalanche
No new activity observed