Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey Mark Mueller · Feb 25, 2020 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Holy wind! If its gonna try to blow you out of your ski boots, at least it can be sunny, right? Temperatures started out cold and didn't warm much during the day. It felt even colder with the added wind chill - might have been one of the colder days of the season. Skies were sunny to start, then clouds filled in during the afternoon and this kept the solar influence at bay.
Snowpack
Signs of instability near and below treeline have quickly diminished since Sunday with generally good bonding at the new snow/ old snow interface on multiple aspects. Slopes facing east through south to west have a firm crust below recent storm snow. New snow didn't sluff with ski pressure in steeper terrain above the crust. However, this crust could act as the perfect sliding surface for loose snow movement on southerly-facing slopes with warmer temperatures later this week. Snow surfaces on northerly-facing terrain near treeline was wind-pressed and thickened from strong wind but not slabby - soft riding conditions found below the wind line. Along ridges and at higher elevations, winds were so strong that blowing snow was mostly sublimating into the air versus loading onto slopes below. Micro terrain features were also lending to erratic wind behavior contributing to swirling snow and upslope eddy effects. We found very isolated and stubborn wind-drifted areas below ridge tops and in cross-loaded terrain features near treeline. Minor cracking but no downhill movement. Alpine slopes looked smooth and phat from recent drifting and we expect slabs in that elevation band to be more sensitive to rider-triggering and avalanches possible.
Avalanche
A couple shallow wind-slabs recently and skeleton crown lines from sometime in early February. All slides appeared confined to storm snow.