Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Bilbrey · Dec 23, 2020 · Southern San Juan

Weather

Cold, windy day with a mixture of varying cloud cover. By 2:30 pm, peaks became obscured and light snow squalls (S-1) occurred off and on for a few hours. No accumulations noted by around 4 pm.

Snowpack

The snowpack in this area is thin and fragile. The biggest challenge currently is finding a slope with enough snow to safely ride. If you do, you're guaranteed to find the December snowfall sitting on large grain facets or depth hoar. You may also encounter a firm wind-drifted slab at higher elevations and on open lower elevations slopes. Signs of instability on north and northeast-facing slopes has diminished but steeper slopes still produce surface cracking with ski pressure. Propagating failures (ECTP 11 and ECTPV) in test confirm that if you find the right slab, weak layer combo then triggering an avalanche is still a concern. The current snowpack structure won't support much of a new load before reaching it's breaking point. Thin melt-freeze crust are forming on sunny slopes where snow lingers, but many southerly-facing slopes and slopes below 10,000 feet are still too thin to ride. The further north you travel in the main canyon, snow depths increase but still remain shallow for Late-December.

Avalanche

None observed.