Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Ann Mellick Jeff Davis · Feb 23, 2021 · Northern San Juan

View on map

Weather

Sunny and mild. Sun is getting stronger by the day and felt quite warm despite temps hovering near or below freezing in the alpine.

Snowpack

The persistent slab problem is...persistent. Two snow profiles dug near treeline showed worrisome snow structure with hard to no results in pit tests (see snow profiles for details). This shows us that while slabs may be getting more stubborn to trigger, they still have the potential to break wide and result in a large avalanche. The strengthening sun is causing surface melting on sunny slopes. Melting has NOT reached deeper into the snowpack yet.

Avalanche

Lots of harmless rollers and some long running, but not-so-dangerous loose wet surface sluffs on sunny slopes at all elevations. No new slabs.