Northern San Juan
AvalancheBill Nalli Chris Bilbrey · Mar 27, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cloudy and very windy with intermittent snowfall. The wind has died down but is still blowing strong enough to transport snow in the alpine. Winds were blowing snow at all elevations including below treeline.
Snowpack
The snowpack is adjusting to its recent wind load from March 26-27. No new signs of recent avalanches from today but lots of evidence that yesterday's wind sparked a round of slab avalanches. Some of these slides were breaking to the ground and propagating wider that we have seen since early winter. The new dense wind slab has overloaded many west through north through east facing slopes where the weakest large faceted grains exist mid-pack and near the ground. Slabs were not sensitive in the areas travelled today but we also did not expose ourselves to any large avalanche paths. Strong south wind made it difficult to travel in the alpine. By the end of the day new snow of 1 to 2 inches was being blown into drifts up to 6 inches deep and becoming more sensitive to ski cuts at all elevations and even below treeline in more open type of terrain.
Avalanche
McComber slide coded in obs from Pertuz on 2/26