Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Bilbrey · Nov 23, 2020 · Southern San Juan

Weather

We found 1 to 2 inches of wet snow above 10,600 feet with all rain below that. Skies were obscured to overcast and breaking on our way down canyon in the late-afternoon. Light to moderate southwest winds.

Snowpack

Snowpack was warm and moist, top to bottom, on northerly-facing slopes between 10,000 and 11,000 feet. It was easy to make a snow ball with all individual layers where the snowpack was moist. As we climbed to near 11,000 feet and higher, the snowpack dried significantly. Our snowpit on a northeast-facing slope near treeline showed a weakening snow structure and grains that were mostly round just over a week ago are now beginning to facet and grow in size. This process appears to be happening from the surface down with more rounded grains dominating the layers near the ground. The snowpack was supportable to skis but we easily punched through in boots to just a few inches above the ground. No signs of unstable snow and ECTs produced non-propagating results in mid-pack layers and at the ground. Northerly-facing, wind-sheltered slopes near treeline where we traveled lack a cohesive enough slab to be a widespread concern at present. However, this could be different at higher elevations with more drifting or once we stack a stiff, thick slab above from additional snowfall.

Avalanche

None observed