Northern San Juan
AvalancheChris Dickson · Dec 29, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cold temps in the low teens with partly cloudy skies in the morning, yielding to partly cloudy skies and temps rising into the mid-20s by afternoon.
Snowpack
50-70cms of new snow fell in the Ophir area above 11K. New snow came in right-side-up with very low density "cold smoke" on top from last night's snowfall. Little evidence of wind effect on NTL ridgelines. Dug a pit on a NE aspect at 11,200'. 130cms of total snow. 60cms of new snow. Well developed depth hoar at the bottom of the pack. The PWL of concern continues to be the 11/29 layer, where a hard transition occurs from small grained facets to larger grained depth hoar. ECT resulted in a ECTP5 on the 11/29 PWL, with the soft slab sliding right into the pit.
Avalanche
One small D1 on steep rocky NE-facing terrain BTL. Numerous natural D1 to D2-sized avalanches on steep rocky norths ATL viewed yesterday (12/28), and then observed many widely-propogating naturals today (12/29) on steep South-facing ATL terrain above Ophir and Telluride.