Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnonymous · Apr 24, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
20 degrees and calm with clear skies on an east aspect at 12,600"
Snowpack
This area saw 12-14" of storm snow that came in Friday night with strong westerly winds. The new snow seemed to bond well to the dust layer, although on Saturday we witnessed cliff band faces shedding some small loose-dry sluffs during brief periods of sun in the same area. Overnight on Saturday, we received another 1/2 inch of new snow. Sunday morning was clear and calm and the east face of US Mountain was cooking in the sun all morning.
Avalanche
We were across the drainage when we saw a single skier drop into the face and begin their descent. At ~12,500", the skier triggered two loose-wet point release that ran on the new snow-old dust snow interface, entraining snow and stepping down as it traveled through a series of rock bands. The avalanche ran the full 2,000" foot slide path. Lower down in the path (~11,800-11,400") we observed several additional pockets that had ripped to the ground with ~2-3 foot crowns.