Northern San Juan
AvalancheAmy Pertuz · Mar 17, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Snow showers and overcast skies lingered until about noon in the red mountain pass corridor, but remained until later in the day up Camp Bird. Northerly winds were not felt below tree line, but some wind-affected snow was visible near and above tree line, and in more open below tree line areas. More wind effect up RMP.
Snowpack
4-5" new on RMP and 5-8" new up CBR. Storm snow well bonded in areas travelled. Warm afternoon temperatures and some intermittent afternoon sun allowed storm snow to settle quickly. In sunnier spots, this burned the new snow down to a moist surface layer, but on colder slopes, the snow stayed dry but the surface of the storm snow settled into a thin slab of temperature affected snow above low density stellars. Prominent PWL interfaces were found at 40cm from early March and at 75 cm from late February. Both produced clean shears but were resistant to failure in tests, failing on the last taps in column tests.
Avalanche
Skier-remote on US mountain was described previously by Z Guy. https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=70823&view=public