Northern San Juan

We observed some recent loose activity on southwest slopes. These were small avalanches in the recent snow that ran on old crusts. I triggered one small loose avalanche in a couple inches of recent snow that slid on a thin but supportable melt-freeze crust.

Warm near and below treeline, although nearby SNOTEL sites have temperatures below freezing at 11000 feet during the day. Light winds. Winds were strong late Thursday into early Friday, but let up considerably as they shifted north at the end of the snow. Only 2-3 inches of recent snow was observed locally near treeline. Appears as though areas north and west of Red Mountain Pass picked up more snow out of the recent storm.

A few inches of new precipitation sits above a thin but supportable melt-freeze crust on northeast near and below treeline slopes. Near treeline a 1-finger slab sits above old facets. We received hard propagating results that resulted in a planar fracture below the 1 Finger slab.. Below treeline, a quick hand pit revealed a generally softer slab, four-finger hardness, above the old faceted snow. Avalanche observations have been limited since the large connected avalanches triggered on the 27th and 28th. While warm weather has stiffened slabs and created crusts, making weak layers more challenging to impact and slabs-weak-layer combos stubborn, the structure and propagating tests still suggest the possibility of avalanches.