Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Colin Mitchell · Dec 22, 2021 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Skies were clearing and temperatures warming quickly after a cold start to the morning. Very light southwest winds.

Snowpack

I received instant feedback in the form of cracking and collapsing when I started to break trail, but very localized. The longest cracks were around 6 feet. The slab was just too soft and faceted to propagate a crack. Snowpack tests bore this out, ECTN 13 and 16. The snowpack consisted of four layers of progressively harder facets. The bottom 6 cm or so was old snow from October. At this location, it was P hard, almost like a crust, but this was the layer my tests broke on.

Avalanche

No new activity observed