Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Josh Coffin · Jan 15, 2016 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Obscured skies all day. It sure looked like it wanted snow but we only witnessed a few incidents of S-1 throughout our tour. Winds were light out of the NW Ntl with very light transport and calm Btl. Temps hovered around 15-20F.

Snowpack

HN was around 5-7cm in sheltered areas. On East aspects Btl this was sitting on a very thin zipper of a melt freeze crust and on North aspects at the same elevations the interface was made up of a mix of DF's and NSF's (.5mm). Informal shovel tap tests showed fair bonding to the interface of old/new. Easterly aspects Ntl showed lightly wind deposited snow of up to 20cm and produced minor cracking localized to around ski's while skinning. Slope cuts produced minor sluffing within the new snow on test slopes greater or equal to 40 degrees N/Btl maybe D 0.5 max. HS 165cm on North slopes Ntl thinning to 130-145cm Btl.

Avalanche

No new observed. Old crowns from the holiday cycle are still very visible.