February 18
Porter Fork, Butler Basin, Gobblers Knob
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
6200-10400', angles over 35°, all aspects.
Snow conditions
Lower elevations are crusted, the road remains icy with little softening.
Mid and upper elevations, on the shady side, added an inch or so of fresh.
South facing aspects softened with heating. Southeast was early corn around 1pm and went off quickly.
Other aspects were also short lived early corn but, remained supportable into late afternoon.
I carried a whippet and ski crampons. Neither were used.
A helmet, mouthpiece and ear plugs would have benn handy for mid and lower elevation exit
Weather
Another spring day, wind was light from the west.
Avalanche activity
The rock slabs above the blue ice spit up a creep-glide slide.
I always wonder, is it glide or creep? since free water isn't visible at the fracture and the slope below is unsupported.
Other activity was limited to surface sluffing on steep shady aspects.
Evaluation
Mostly stable snow other than the slide in Broads.
Weather guessers suggest snow late in the week so..
future stability is dependent on snow amount, bonding and wind effect.
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