Southern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis · Dec 12, 2021 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Windy, warm, and sunny.
Snowpack
The snowpack is slow to adjust from last week's rapid and significant load, but today I experienced fewer signs of instability than the previous two days. Strong southwest winds threw snow banners onto leeward slopes and stiffened the snow surface on ridgelines. Wind-loading was more intense in the morning but seemed to back off in the afternoon as less snow was available for transport. Warm temperatures and sunshine quickly helped settle the snow on sunny and low elevation slopes. A zipper crust was observed on east-facing slopes in the afternoon once in the shade. As mentioned above, today, I experienced fewer signs of instability, but we are far from out of the woods. The hazard is just becoming more confined to northerly slopes and most dangerous on slopes that had old snow before this week's storm. I triggered a handful of whumpfs and continued to avoid all slopes above treeline and north slopes below treeline steeper than 32 degrees. The snowpack remains generally thin and variable in areas south of Silverton. Though this area received around 30" of snow in this past storm, there was less coverage prior.
Avalanche
Natural avalanches were observed on 2 northeast facing slopes above treeline. Likely triggered by intense loading early this morning or overnight.