Southern San Juan
AvalancheJeff Davis Chris Bilbrey · Apr 1, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Snow and clouds hung around until late morning. Northwest winds decreased as the storm moved out of the area. Temperatures were below freezing and the spring sun was strong.
Snowpack
Around 8 inches of 10% snow fell in the area overnight. Strong northwest wind drifted the new snow onto leeward slopes, with drifting around 24 inches deep at treeline and higher. The new snow has bonded well to the various old snow surfaces below. The snow on sunny slopes quickly settled under an intense San Juan sun glopping to skis and skins by later in the day. Digging on a north-facing slope below treeline, the snowpack is still cold and dry around approx. 11,500 feet. The February facet layer is now around 80 cm's below the surface under a stout slab, and weaker grains are rounding. While these persistent grains remain 4F in hardness, test results produced hard, stubborn non-propagating failures. We did not observe any cracking or collapsing in the terrain where we traveled. Recent snowfall sits above a firm melt-freeze crust that developed from last weekend's big warm-up. This slippery layer was found on the majority of slopes at mid and lower elevations, and could be a driver of Wet Slab avalanche activity if we return to a period of hot weather with non-freezing nights.
Avalanche
Numerous long-running Loose Dry and a couple Soft Slab avalanches observed in the morning on easterly slopes triggered by wind loading. Several Loose Wet avalanches observed on steep rocky southerly slopes in the afternoon.