Southern San Juan
AvalancheColin Carver · Feb 28, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
The temperature was warm, 30F at 10am and 47F at 14:00 when we returned. Very calm and sunny along our route, but we did see some blowing snow at ridgelines from 12-13K.
Snowpack
We dug two pits, the first at a sheltered north slope at 11K. ETC 27 on a thick layer of facets 26 in below the snow surface at the bottom of the new storm snow. The second was on a west slope at 11.7K. This pit failed ETC 7, 16in below the surface on a thick layer of facets. Above the facets was a very hard curst, 5cm thick, and new storm snow above. We felt and heard approx. 50 collapses, mostly on south to west aspects and flat meadows. We did not travel much on north and east slopes, but the west or south slopes were predictably collapsing. The results of the second pit and numerous collapses made us more or less retreat without skiing anything close to or above 30 deg slope angle. We did not find any terrain that felt reasonable to ski except thick low angle trees.
Avalanche
We saw numerous small to medium to large avalanches on most aspects and elevation bands from the most recent cycle, but nothing new today.