Northern San Juan
AvalancheAmy Pertuz · Jan 14, 2021 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cool temps with sustained strong NW winds. Blowing snow was strongly pluming off ridge tops in specific places, but most areas did not have a significant amount of snow being transported, especially below tree line.
Snowpack
The strong winds today stripped, strafed, or stuffed most of the snow in the alpine and near tree line elevations. Winds were swirling snow enough that while most of the loading went to NTL SE aspects, nearly any depression in the terrain caught wind drifted snow, regardless of aspect.. A thin wind crust formed below tree line up to 3” thick on many slopes below tree line. The presence of a mid pack slab on NTL and BTL W aspects continues to be hit or miss, and is faceting away where it is present. HS on NTL W aspect ranged from 65cm to 110cm. Much the same on NTL and BTL NW slopes. The snowpack is more uniform there, with no crusts found on this aspect, but much of the pack is 4F hardness and faceting. HS NTL NW slopes ranged from 75 to 130cm. No propagating results in the 2 primary layers of concern on a NW aspect at 11,500’, though the Dec 11 interface still produces hard but clean failures in CT.
Avalanche
No new avalanches. No cracking, collapsing today.