Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Skiers triggered the Mine Dump in Ophir Valley today -- pretty much the whole thing... started as a small slab, then took the whole dump out. Shallow (2' max, to ground), ran like 125' wide and 450' vertical (R4D2).. north facing, well below treeline... not a slope I would consider indicative of the backcountry... a bad bed surface, tends to slide, thin, catches wind... anyway, interesting, no one caught. otherwise, people are starting to push up and out (Magnum and Fatty couloirs yesterday) w/o incident... skiing yesterday was relatively warm... the day before was brutally cold