Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey · Feb 17, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Cool day with periods of overcast skies that transitioned to sunny skies, then back to overcast. A few brief snow showers did not add up to measurable accumulations. Winds were light out of the north lighting drifting snow onto east and southeast-facing slopes.
Snowpack
New snow amounts range from 4 to 5 inches below treeline up to 6 to 8 inches at treeline. At lower elevations, depth of new snow varied dramatically from open areas to heavily treed slopes, and accumulations were about half as deep where trees were thicker. Around 11,000 feet, we began to observe cracking below our feet along the skin track and Compression Test yielded easy break failures at the N/O interface. However, slabs remained soft and the new snow had little affect on avalanche conditions at lower elevations. Once we climbed into the alpine, we observed cracking out in front of our skis in deeper drifts, but no snow movement. Cracking was easier to initiate in the new snow on north-facing slopes with a hard wind-drifted layer below, or above a faceted crust on easterly-facing slopes. The new snow settled quickly and bonded well to the old snow surface on slopes that saw even minimal sunshine. Still able to initiate small surface sluffs on shady slopes around 35 degrees, but none traveled far.
Avalanche
A small loose snow slide on east-facing terrain from brief periods of sun warming the snow surface. The slide did not entrain a lot of additional snow while moving down the slope.