Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Ann Mellick Jeff Davis · Apr 1, 2019 · Northern San Juan

View on map

Weather

Clear and chilly with a brisk NW wind.

Snowpack

The weekend storm left about 6" of new snow on the ground with deeper drifts on lee slopes, especially in the alpine. While the wind had drifted the snow, it was not particularly slabby or stiff. New snow fell on a firm base on all aspects- mostly melt-freeze crusts of varying thickness depending on aspect and elevation. North and easterly slopes above treeline remain wintry. New snow was generally well bonded to the old surface, though did sluff with skier pressure in steeper terrain above treeline. Sluffs remained small and harmless. Below treeline: sluffs ran faster on hard melt-freeze crusts and were big enough to knock a person down.

Avalanche

Several loose dry slides ran with sunshine/warming. All were relatively harmless, though some were long-runners.