Northern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Feb 16, 2019 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Snow fell throughout the duration of our tour. Snow squalls were heavy at times bringing S5 snowfall rates. Approximately 4-6 inches of new snow fell, as strong southwest winds moved snow to leeward slopes.
Snowpack
Red Mountain pass received a Valentine of 2+ inches of SWE (Snow Water Equivalent) over the Hallmark Holiday storm. High Precipitation rates of 1"+ an hour for multiple hours triggered a widespread natural cycle on the night of February 14th and early morning hours of February 15th. Most avalanches occurred in the new snow, but a few avalanches stepped down to older layers triggering larger and more dangerous avalanches. Avalanche size ranged from a few D3 and a plethora of D1 and D2's. Today, we dug on an east facing aspect at ~11,500 feet. The snowpack was over 6 feet deep. Snowpack test should propagating failures between the storm snow from the last few days, the decomposing snow from last weeks storm, and the 50 cm layer of depth hoar and facets that persist on the ground. The upper two failure plans are within the top meter of the snowpack. Isolated cracking and collapsing observed today. Really nice riding conditions on protected slopes below treeline.
Avalanche
No new avalanches observed today.