Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Jan 17, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Warm and breezy. Some high thin clouds were in and out through the morning and early afternoon.
Snowpack
Red Mountain Pass had a pretty solid, mostly right-side up snowpack. The mid-pack facet layer is still prominent in stratigraphy but was unreactive in tests, ECTX x 2. In December, ECT's at this location were propagating with moderate taps, so we have seen some improvement. Last week's warm-up was probably a big factor. At the Brooklyns, HS was similar, around a meter, and the upper 60 cm or so of the snowpack was very similar to the top of the pass. At the base of the snowpack, I found F-hard depth hoar underneath a stout melt-freeze crust of old facets. This layer propagated in ECTs, ECTP21, ECTP20. This profile was dug on a talus slope, which may have contributed to the formation or persistence of this layer. The upper slopes of the Brooklyns have been heavily wind affected and lost a lot of volume. Old bed surfaces have been blown clean and the ridges between the gullies were thin and wind-hammered. Crowns from Dec. 29 mitigation were still visible.
Avalanche
No avalanches observed