Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Matt Entz ยท Dec 8, 2019

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Weather

Moderate snowfall, moderate winds out of the southwest

Snowpack

Varying layers finding up to 90 cm. All time spent below treeline. Deepest on n and ne aspects. Max elevation 11,400 ft. Cracking and collapsing occurring all throughout the day. Some areas becoming tougher to initiate. Usually 1st machine would initiate. Occasionally 2nd and 3rd machine initiated.

Avalanche

2 very small avalanches snowmobile triggered on test slopes. Both ne aspects below treeline below old logging roads on slopes 37 degrees. 1st roughly 1 mile south of Campo Molino at 10,600 ft. 2nd occurred just south of intersection of FS roads 384 and 385 at 11,000 ft. Crowns ranged from 20-30 cm. Both failed on layer of buried surface hoar. Surface hoar was observed Wednesday on n-e aspects in same area.