Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey Jeff Davis · Jan 14, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Sunny, mild January day. Drastic drop in air temperature when in the shade versus direct sun.
Snowpack
The snowpack on all aspects and elevations in the south-central part of the South San Juan is noticeably shallower than other parts of the zone. The snow surface on sunny and low elevation slopes has been tormented by recent warm temperatures and abundant sunshine. Snow depth and quality increased with elevation. On near and above treeline slopes, the snowpack was supportive to the weight of a snowmobile. Like many areas in the San Juan Mountains, signs of instability are non-existent and the snowpack "feels" good on the surface, but the story remains the same below. Persistent Weak Layers, i.e. facets and depth hoar, lurk under a 60 to 100 cm 1 F to Pencil hard slab. Compression tests produced hard, planar failures on weak snow near the ground, but Extended Column Test did not propagate across the column. This is an example of how the avalanche problem is stubborn, but we are not out of the woods. No cracking or collapsing observed.
Avalanche
None observed