Southern San Juan

Avalanche

Chris Keim · Dec 10, 2021 · Southern San Juan

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Weather

Moderate westerly winds below tree line, high wind gust near tree line. Mostly cloudy with some sun peaking throughout the day.

Snowpack

Whumpfing, cracking, and collapsing on the tour up. Snow density was right side up with consolidated heavier snow toward the bottom and light snow on top. In places new snow measured between 70-90 cm. As one would expect, we found this new snow on weak basal facets.

Avalanche

As we approached the meadow below engineer peak we came across some natural slides. Slide 1: N-aspect, BTL, crown was 2-3 feet deep and propagated ~ 200'. Slide 2: N-aspect, NTL, 2-3 foot crown propagated ~200 ft.