Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Jan 20, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Mostly cloudy with two distinct cloud decks. Intermittent low clouds obscured the surrounding peaks, with partly cloudy skies above. Little wind at this location other than a few random gusty moments. No wind transport observed.
Snowpack
We traveled N,W,NW, and SW aspects near and above treeline. Near-treeline we found 3-10 inches of 4F D/F grains over a knife-hard windslab formed at the end of last week. This slab was mostly supportable and varied from 2-6 inches thick. Beneath that was around 80 cm of old snow, composed of several layers of 4F to 1F rounding facets. Above treeline, the snowpack was thinner. HS averaged only around 20-50 cm. Last week's wind slab was here as well, with a few inches of new snow on top. Underneath the wind slab we found either all soft 4F- facets, or simply knife-hard slab to the ground. We punched through the wind slab regularly on the skin track with no cracking or propagation of any kind.
Avalanche
No new avalanche activity observed.