Northern San Juan
AvalancheAnonymous · Mar 22, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
NE, Above TL, 12,500 ft. Hazelton Mountain. Sky slightly cloudy, very light snowfall. Light winds out of the Southwest.
Snowpack
Fresh 30/40 cm slab of new snow/ wind drifted snow (4F Hardness); On top of thin melt/ freeze crust (2 cm P Hardness). Underneath was about 30-50 cm of facets (F hardness).
Avalanche
After my partner ski cut the top of the slide path and got only a small slough to go, he skied the line first. He skied about 300 vertical feet through a small choke and hugged skier's left below the choke out of the avalanche path. I dropped in and on my 5th turn got swept out from the avalanche above me. I was carried 800-900 vertical feet in the slide, finally arresting myself just above 30-40 foot cliff bands ending up on top of the debris. Luckily there were no injuries and we were able to make it out safe. Looking back up at the slide it the crown depth was about 40 cm wind slab, about 30 meters wide, and ran for about 300 meters increasing speed through the choke of the path and fanning out in the apron. HS-ASu-D2R2.5-O