Northern San Juan
AvalancheAmy Pertuz · Feb 3, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Windy. Strong to extreme winds out of the SW this afternoon. Blowing snow was moderate with periods of intense in some locations. A few inches of new snow today, which mostly seemed to be graupel. Impressive amount of blowing snow considering modest accumulation and sun crusted fetches on SW aspects.
Snowpack
Signs of warm up and melt freeze from the last couple days were seen on all but Northerly aspects. Some moist snow is under this new dry snow at lower elevations below TL, but at 11,000ft, the new snow was fairly well bonded to a dry, refrozen surface in the area I travelled. Wind has moved snow in even protected places below TL, though this has resulted in isolated wind lenses more than connected slabs. New snow near and below TL was mostly dense, large grained graupel. Plenty of signs that the snowpack is reaching another tipping point, especially on Northerly aspects.
Avalanche
I witnessed a large natural this afternoon on Red 3 in a crossloaded NW ATL path adjacent to Hollywood. Prior to the avalanche, blowing snow was moderate to intense out of the SW and clearly loading this feature (as well as Champion and Hollywood). The crown appears very deep. In some places, it appears to have gone to the ground. SS-N-R3-D2.5-o/g A fresh natural on the ATL Northeast side of Red 2 (proper) in the Midnight zone was also seen, SS-N-R2-D2-o, about a meter deep.. Another recent natural, also apparently caused by cross loading, was visible on an ATL Westerly aspect on Red 1, SS-N-R2-D2. Smaller slabs noted on many other aspects below TL, mostly NW-N-E