February 20

Area:
Gobblers Knob
Location:
Bowman trail to yellow Jacket to Gobblers Cabin run to Gobblers main face shoulder out Porter Fork.
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
6200’-10’400’, angles to 35°+, north, northwest, and west aspects.
Avalanche activity:

The cornice I kicked into Toots to Boot, Alexander Basin last Friday did produce a slide. It was around a hundred feet wide and ran all the way to the flats breaking out around 75’ below the ridge line.

Saw the slide on the southeast face of Raymond shoulder.

Close up

There were a coupla slides on south facing Gobblers. One on the southeast face from a cornice fall, 50’ wide running over the cliffs into the flats and another on the southwest facing. One of the large gullies had a slide which also ran out to the flats in Mill A. Those were at least a day old. There was a natural of about 150’ wide northeast facing Raymond shoulder, which ran several hundred feet into Mill A.

Depth of a foot and more.

A natural midway down the nose on Gobblers rleased today possibly triggered by a sluff from higher up. It was about 100’ wide and over a foot deep.

Running on a crust, stepping down into older snow near the ground. Ran about 800’ vertical into the main gully.

A stress fracture was noted across the Cabin run, initiated by skiing the slope.
Slopes skied:
Cabin run, both pitches to below Baker Springs and the shoulder of the main face on Gobblers.
Snow surface and conditions:
2”-6” from the recent storm with less at lower elevations increasing, with ascent. The snow was rapidly heated by the sun and very mild temperatures becoming wet and sticky on sun exposed. I would expect wet activity but, none was noted today. Winds, increasing in the afternoon from the west were once again loading the east facing. Some localized collapsing was felt in drifted areas.
Weather:
Clear and sunny for most of the day with very mild temperatures. Winds increased from the west and were gusting into the 30mph+ range by afternoon.
Evaluation:
As has been noted numerous times, the snow does not like rapid change. Temperatures of about 20° warmer than yesterday helped initiate the slide on the nose of Gobblers and may have contributed to the skier triggered slide on the shoulder of Raymond. Those temperatures will also have settled any new snow instabilities. The lingering hazard from deeper snow instabilities were likely increased with the warming but a cooler night may help to settle those out somewhat. Just a guess.

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