Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Justin Swantek · Feb 26, 2023 · Southern San Juan

Weather

Saturday and Sunday morning were calm. S/SW winds picked up Sunday midday with the brief storm.

Snowpack

N aspects BTL averaged 180cm with a snowpack structure nearly identical to Chris Bilbrey's report from the 23rd (including the graupel layer) - CTMQ2 and ECTX on new snow/old snow interface. E aspects BTL had a very similar structure in the top meter of the snowpack, but were slightly thinner overall. On S/SE aspects BTL there were a few sun crusts buried ~30-70 cm below the new snow - above the top crust was a thin layer of non-reactive small grained facets (CTMQ3, ECTNHx2). All W and S aspects had pinwheels and point releases pop off with Saturday's afternoon sun - this refroze overnight and formed a thin crust Sunday morning. NTL and ATL, wind loading was obvious. Plumes were blowing off the ridge periodically Saturday and more consistently on Sunday morning. We observed one natural that ran at the end of the wind event last week, but did not travel high enough to find any wind slabs.

Avalanche

Wind slab broke below the ridge on the E face of Parrot near the end of the strong wind event (likely Thursday or Friday as crown was still obvious on Saturday morning). ATL-E-SS-N-R1D1