Southern San Juan
AvalancheIan Altman · Jan 6, 2016 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cold and wet, 20-30 degrees and snowing all day; 8- 10 inches of new accumulation by days end. No notable winds below tree line.
Snowpack
The quickly forming storm slab was the main concern for the day. 6-8"s of new at the beginning of the day and 12-16" by days end. Snowing 1-2 inches per hour with light winds. There was obvious poor bonding at the new/old snow interface on the sun effected aspects we toured across(east/southeast) in Snowslide gulch, and considerable sluffing on the northeast aspects we skied down off PR 1&2. Cracking and propagation of 10-30' on southeast aspects well below tree line in Snowslide gulch and much evidence of recent naturals. Larger stuffs on northeast aspects that did crown out ( 6-8"s deep) and ran some distance.
Avalanche
Although we did not trigger any avalanches, we did observe considerable natural activity in the trenches and all too ugly terrane trap of Snowslide gulch, as well as a slab avalanche on a northeast aspect in Root creek. See photos but both the north and south sides of the bottom of SS gulch had pulled out with only 6-8"s of snow load. When skiing down in the northeast side of Parrot ridge 2 into Root we saw what looked like a natural slab release on a steep convex role in the trees( R1,D1) This may have been skier triggered by a different party skiing there today, but unclear. Stuffs while skiing became large enough to worry about on NE slopes steeper than 30 degrees, but it was manageable still with a good knowledge of the overall terrain features.