December 24
Porter Fork summer trail
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
6200-9500', angles over 35°, north facing aspects.
Snow conditions
6" new snow on the Porter fork road. that amount increased to an optimistic 10" in the upper elevations
Add a coupla inches from the storm on the 20th.
The base remains marginal.
Weather
Overcast skies, cool temperatures with gusty west wind at upper elevations.
Avalanche
Interested in how the snow pack was handling a load I started up the little bowl just west of the summer trail.
There was a debris pile from early in the storm,looker's left gully.
I was using trees as safe zones, just about to dig a pit, when the snow did it for me.
Remotely triggered from well down on the hill.
The slide was about 50' wide,
encompassing most of the bowl,
running several hundred vertical feet. Northeast facing aspect at around 9500'.
Snow pit
Fracture was on facet-rime crust-facet interface.
Bed surface was a mixed bag, leaving the crust intact or running on the ground leaving an inch or so of large facets.
Depth ranged from 8-16"..
Evaluation
The recent snow is enough to make human triggered slides likely but, not enough to produce widespread natural activity.
The "dirty harry" principle takes precedence."Do you feel lucky".
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