Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Josh Vincent · Feb 17, 2022 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Cold and clear with light winds.

Snowpack

A party in front of me starting skiing up the East facing BTL slope above crystal lake. They turned around after seeing shooting cracks shortly up the slope. I was a few minutes behind them and after several very easy hand shears and digging around a bit, it was apparent the new snow did not bond well to the old crust / facet interface. Approximately 20cm of new snow has formed a soft slab and showed signs of radiation recrystallization at the surface. The new snow on the surface was rapidly faceting. Just below there was a thin crust from the incoming shortwave.

Avalanche

I noticed an avalanche on the South side of Red 1. The avalanche was above treeline and ran for about 800 ft. See the attached photo.