Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Jason Bushey · Jan 15, 2017 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Overcast most of the day. Around 9:30 the sun came out for about 15 minutes and certainly warmed temperatures of the snow a bit, but not much. Cloud cover came back and protected the snow. No wind, calm, and around 30 degrees or so.

Snowpack

Below 10,000' a 1-2" crust was observed on the snow on northeast facing, non protected snow. As you continued higher, the snow lost the crust, but was noticably denser than seen on 1/14. No signs of instability were noted on the day, but the previous days damage was evident. Multiple natural shooting cracks were seen approx 3-4" and around 10' wide at times, all not traveling any distances. These occured even in denser trees. All noted were approx on slopes 30-38 degrees. Walking out in areas that previous had cracked produced no results, and no switchbacks showed any instabilities and were well supported with minimal slab creation. Boot penetration was decent, going about to the knee, and pole plants showed signs of cohesive snow starting. The snow seemed to have settled quite a bit since 1/14 observations, and the heat must have played a part in that. Some avalanches from 1/14 were seen on mostly W facing aspects, and North and East facing aspect such as Sultan and Bear showed no signs of avalanches. Pit results were found on a NE aspect, 11, 975' just over a ridgeline (approx 30 feet below), on a 22 degree slope. Height of snow was 220cm with approx 50cm of new storm snow between the 3 days of events. Two layers were prominent at 175cm and 135cm. CT13Q2 observed at 175cm, where layer was planer, but did not pop out. ECT test reacted on 13 as well, more of a Q3 (rough layer), but did not propagate across full block. Could not get layer at 135cm to react. Multiple ski cuts on E, N, NW slopes produced no results on slopes approx 35 degrees. Skied Irenes, avoiding starting avalanche zone.

Avalanche

Mostly west facing aspects above treeline. Silverton Mountain seemed to have a sizeable avalanche release on 1/14 on Horsecock basin, travelling over the road.