Northern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey · Nov 22, 2022 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Chilly morning. Afternoon temperatures warmed nicely under sunny skies and a light breeze along ridgelines.
Snowpack
Overall snowpack conditions were about what we anticipated, weak and lacking a cohesive slab. The middle of the snowpack harbors the hardest layering (4F), and is still supportive for over-the-snow travel, but unsupportive to boot penetration and foot travel. Loose snow sluffs are getting easier to initiate on steep, shady slopes near and below treeline but remain small in size due to surface roughness and shallow snow depths. In the alpine, we found mix-bag surface conditions that ranged from near-surface facets sitting above a hard wind-stiffened layer or crust next to a breakable surface wind board next to a fully faceted snowpack. Additionally, strong winds during November have left varying snow depths across the same slopes. While harder snow layers are found in the upper snowpack on many alpine slopes, our current cold weather regime continues to soften wind-drifted snow. Triggering a larger avalanche in faceted snow near the ground seems less likely until we receive another big load. Snow cover continues to deplete on southerly-facing slopes and the avalanche danger on those slopes will rise the slowest initially once we return to an active weather pattern.
Avalanche
None observed. We initiated a few small, isolated loose snow sluffs on steeper, shady slopes around 11,400 feet. They did not travel far and were confined to the top 6 to 8 inches of weak, cohesionless snow.