1/27/2024 Field Report - Northern San Juan

Traveled BTL today to get an idea of the snowpack and toured up by Oh Boy ski run which is above Red Mountain Lodge. We opted to not go into the heavily ski tracked run but to opt for the fresh snow in the dense trees to lookers left. Shallow snowpack in the upper trees with lots of deadfall which made skiing a bit more technical but great facet skiing if you didn't hit the ground. After that run we skinned up to the top of Powerline past the hut about 500 vertical feet to get some more fresh untracked turns. We skied down the South South West upper section ATL and took a turn around a rock bend onto the West face. This had great skiing with no cracking and no whumps. We had not heard a talkative snowpack today. We then headed out towards Hollywood assessing the snow more in depth and even turning around at one point to ski a more mellow slope that wasn't as exposed. Our skin track that we were on would have taken us into some exposed steep slopes that had previously slid this past week and looked to be wind loaded again. We both decided this was not a good option. We continued to skin over the ridgeline into hollywood and noticed it looked like a resort ski run with how many tracks had been down it. We had discussed the wind effected slope on our way to a destination we chose for an assessment of which line to take, which was a small rock band located in the middle of the slope. We wanted to take a closer look at the untracked convexity to skiers right of the tracks. The convexity looked suspect to us from all the windloading so we opted not to ski that line but skinned over to skiers right of that rollover and found a steep slope with a small tree island with a rock band where we opted to transition to ski.

ATL start zone above 35 degrees that funnels into a gully and levels out onto a low angle shelf that then transitions into around 26-27 degree slope. Unforested on this particular featured run.

Route is named Hollywood- off the North North West Aspect of Red Mountain No. 3.

11,600' approximately on a North West Face skiers right of the normal Hollywood line below Red Mountain No.3 - Skier 1 was on skis and skier 2 was on a splitboard. As Skier 1 prepared his line and as we discussed our stopping points, Skier 2 positioned her splitboard so she could ride near that same line which cause her to move out onto the slope a little farther from the protection of the rockband with small trees above them. Skier 2 then sat down and positioned herself in a comfortable position to keep eyes on Skier 1. We both discussed if anything were to go it would probably be no bigger than a D1 given all the shallow rock outcroppings that would discontinue any chance of a full propagation across the slope. Skier 1 dropped onto the slope doing a ski cut with a couple hops to see if he would get any results or information from the snowpack. As Skier 1 headed down the slope he took 1 turn toward the gully which remote triggered the slope above skier 2. The slope that propagated avalanched down the gully away from Skier 2 which then caused a sympathetic avalanche to propagate right where Skier 2 was sitting. Given she was on a snowboard and sitting she was unable to take a step up the hill where she would have missed taking a ride. The avalanche continued to propagate more which looked like another sympathetic avalanche. This avalanche went to the ground and in some places the crown appeared to be at least 7 feet and a small as 1 foot. The crown was about 600 feet across and ran about 700 feet. Skier 2 took the ride for about 150-200'. When the avalanche came to a stop on the shelf Skier 2 was buried up to her hip and had to dig herself out. . Skier 1 had stopped before the discussed point due to Skier 2 yelling on the radio about the avalanche and about her then being in the avalanche. He was then able to skin up to her, but she was already out of the avalanche debris. No injuries.

We observed the snowpack having a poor structure as indicated across the state. Facets at the ground ranging from around mid ski pole to full ski pole length while touring BTL, NTL, and ATL throughout the day in different areas on the northerly side of the Red Mountain Pass. While entering into NTL zones on North to NorthWest Aspects I noticed the cracking of wind slabs in isolated wind effected areas. It was very thin wind skin with no collapsing or whumps. Lots of cross loading ATL where I found thick wind slabs that were hard to penetrate with a ski pole end. Some areas had more soft wind slabs about 2-3 feet thick but nothing was consistent while touring in these different zones today. We did not dig or do any tests today. I received a text from a friend who indicated they got an ECTP16 on a South Face the day before. I also received a photo of their pit they did these test from and it was interesting they were finding a PS on south facing aspects.

Wind transport on top of ridges and on top of all the peaks but seemed to subside throughout the day. Calm winds BTL and NTL. Very cold temps of 13 degrees this morning and sunny.