November 30

Porter Fork to Silver Bell ridge.

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

6200-9700', angles over 35°, north facing aspects

Snow conditions

2-4" at the trailhead with amounts increasing to an optimistic 20" in the upper bowl(14-16" common).

Mid elevations, off trail, are brushy, best to not.

silver-bell

Layering is dissolving into facets, sandboxing was common in the upper bowl making trail breaking a bit slow.

Shallow snow requires careful skiing for obstacle avoidance, although it remains supportable with a wide platform.

Weather

Partly cloudy skies, light wind with very cool temperatures in the shade.

Avalanche activity

sluff

Ski cutting produced a long running sluff in the dog leg next to Silver Bell slabs.

It gouged into older snow layering, running a hundred feet or so.

Evaluation

Very weak stable snow pack. Sluffing was the only observed instability.

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