January 16

Yellow Jacket, Alexander Basin, Gobblers Dead Snag, out Porter fork

dead-snag

Wear your earplugs, it is loud.

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

6100'-10400', angles over 35°, all aspects.

Snow conditions

Off aspects and south facing have experienced enough warming to form melt-freeze crusts of variable thickness.

The rime crust from the 11th is just beneath or on the surface in both Alexander Basin and the face of Gobblers. It varies in thickness.

rime-crust

In the sheltered meadows surface hoar was found which, along with recrystallization, is dissolving the crust.

rime-hoar

Winds during and after the storm created havoc in upper Alexander, widespread scouring on Gobblers.

Weather

Sunny skies, warm in the sun, cool in the shade. Wind from the ene 10-15 mph along the ridges.

Avalanche activity

echute

Two distinct avalanche cycles were observed in Alexander Basin.

Early in the recent storm, wind drifting created enough load to release most of the middle bowl from cornice fall.

The hanging snow field above cliffs, east facing upper Alexander, also dropped cornices with the avalanche only running to the flats.

Some sort of activity from wnw facing Wilson chutes, mostly concealed by continued wind.

At least one slide ran later or following snow fall, with a visible crown(pictured) in the east chute of Alexander, debris barely reaching lower angles.

Evaluation

Good stability in the areas traveled.

whatchu

Isolated potential for active hard slab wind drifting. Wet activity with warming.

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