Northern San Juan
AvalancheAmy Pertuz · Dec 14, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Brisk temperatures with very light lingering oroographic snowfall int the pm
Snowpack
A few inches of new snow were not enough to change the hazard today. HS ranged from 60-100 cm on SE aspects in the upper reaches of the below-treeline elevation band here. Last week's storm snow has settled into a 4F slab, and obvious signs of instability like cracking and collapsing have also slowed. I continue to experience occasional large rumbling collapses travelling in uncompacted areas, though. On SE aspects at this elevation, the layer of concern is a 2cm layer of facets above a crust, 25cm from the snow surface. This was formed when storm snows covered a warm melt-freeze crust in the first week of December. Right now, the surface layer of recent snow overlying this weak layer lacks the stiffness to act as much of a slab, but this will likely change as this slab settles and stiffens in the coming days of settled weather. Extended column tests broke but failed to propagate on this layer. The area surrounding Red Mountain Pass showed signs of subtle transport of snow near and above treeline from northwesterly, northerly and even northeasterly winds at the beginning of the Tuesday night storm. Calm conditions as the storm wrapped up put an even coating of low-density snow on top of this, obscuring some of the prior wind transport, but evidence could still be seen of unusual loading patterns on cross loaded westerly and easterly terrain near and above treeline in the RMP corridor.
Avalanche
No new avalanches seen in this area