Northern San Juan

Evidence of natural avalanches from the 1/16 wind event. Mostly on northeast-facing slopes above treeline.

Light winds out of the north-west, temperatures in the low 30s, clear skies.

Snowpack is shallow and heavily wind-affected. Below tree-line on N and NE slopes, surfaces varied in spans of a few feet to having a wind crust to soft snow. Near treeline in a test pit, at 11870' on a NE slope, we found well-developed facets sitting below and above New Year's and Christmas crusts. These crusts, however, have significantly deteriorated, meaning they are much softer due to faceting. In a compression test, results were CT12 with failure near the bottom of the snowpack, and in an extended column test, we had no results (ECTX).