Southern Mountains

Avalanche

Anonymous ยท May 20, 2019

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Weather

Patchy sun and clouds with a few snow flurries and gusts

Snowpack

Starting from the animas Forks road, there was about 4"-5" new snow on top of fairly hard crust. Climbing up through the trees the fresh snow was noticeably fluffier and as we reached treeline, the fresh snow was much heavier and both sun and wind effected. Above treeline there were a couple more inches of new snow accumulation but the hard crust underneath the fresh snow was no longer present and it seemed as though the more fresh snow up high had insulated the pack just enough to not allow it to freeze the previous night. Ski pole punched through the new snow and a few inches through the old snow.

Avalanche

Observed 1 natural realease on the new/old snow interface on a very steep slope right next to a very large cornice on a ridge well above us. NE aspect around 12,500 feet.