Southern San Juan
AvalancheChris Bilbrey · Feb 18, 2022 · Southern San Juan
Weather
Beautiful sunny day with light but steady northwest wind near treeline and along ridgetops.
Snowpack
Recent snowfall is settling quickly on southerly-facing slopes at all elevations, and bonding well to the underlying crust. Despite ample sun and warming temperatures, snow surfaces remained dry and no natural sluffing noted. We found mostly firm surfaces (mixture of wind-board and crust) below the storm snow on west through north to east-facing terrain at upper elevations that formed from north winds during February. All harder, underlying layers have a layer of weak facets lurking below that will become suspect with our next big load - maybe next week? We encountered wind-stiffened/ Styrofoam feeling storm snow close to ridgelines, but deeper drifts only cracked below our feet and were stubborn to ski pressure on small test slopes. In shady, wind-sheltered terrain, storm snow has bonded well to 4F facets below. However, factoring depth of recent snowfall and depth of facets, enough volume exist to get pushed around by fast moving sluffs on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Easterly-facing slopes by late-afternoon had developed a breakable crust on the surface and this may limit loose dry sluffing potential on those slopes at lower elevations.
Avalanche
Saw once recent (2/17) and several older (2/2) long-running Loose Dry avalanches, and a couple small soft slabs that failed during recent snowfall. Avalanches already coded in another observation.