Southern San Juan
AvalancheNalli Bilbrey · Jan 26, 2023 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Subzero Fahrenheit temperatures to start and north wind. Abundant sunshine allowed air temperatures to reach the upper single digits by midday.
Snowpack
Snow at the surface was moderately dense wind-drifted snow. Creamy and still skied well. No recent obvious signs of instability but we also stayed clear of the most wind-loaded terrain on the exposed ridges.
Avalanche
We saw these two recent avalanches on the approach to Snowden Peak. They were both in steep rock slab areas and initially we were thinking glide. After a few minutes of thinking we agreed that there was no way there was liquid water involved with these so they must have been regular natural hard slabs failing to the ground on steep rocky slabs.