Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Abel Palmer · Apr 26, 2017 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Sunny with Periods of Overcast clouds

Snowpack

3-7 inches of wind loaded snow in the couloir. Did not bond well to the spring snowpack. The majority of the couloir was soft and fairly uniform snow conditions with slight wind texturing, near the top we observed harder wind slabs less soft snow and more variable skiing and booting conditions.

Avalanche

Smallish skier triggered Storm slab avalanches were easily triggered, did not move very fast, but did pick up more snow as they continued down the slope. Easily manageable but also dangerous if caught in the wrong area.