Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Bilbrey · Dec 16, 2019 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Partly cloudy skies, light NW winds, and cold temps.

Snowpack

Well this was a Wolf Creeker...snowfall overnight delivered around 20" of new snow bringing storm total to 30". Despite storm snow falling right-side-up (F to 4F to 1F), this was a quick, rapid load and the snowpack showed its hand. We observed natural avalanches on slopes facing north to east through southeast and isolated activity on a west-facing slope at treeline. Most slides appeared to fail on a faceted crust or near-surface facet layer below recent storm snow. Long-column test on a northwest aspect at treeline produced propagating results with hard force. Loud, audible and nerve-racking collapses observed on east and southeast-facing slopes. Found En-Echelon cracking (upon arrival to slope) on small, heavily wind-loaded slopes that most likely did not slide due to lower slope angles and heavy vegetation at the toe of the slope. Facets and depth hoar at the ground continue to show signs of rounding but in the end...we have a thick, stiff slab above persistent weak layers that tend to rear their ugly heads when least expected.

Avalanche

Several soft slab avalanches size 1-1.5 observed on various aspects.