March 16
Porter Fork-Gobblers Knob-Porter Fork
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
6200-10k, angles over 35°, north and west facing aspects.
Avalanche activity
Reported glide in Broads, "diving board".
I'm wondering, is it a glide or creep?
Wind drift on facets slid on March 11. The glide? is immediately above that slide which remains visible
Kinda like having the rug pulled out. Nothing holds the upper section in place. A little creep and... off she goes.
Plus, no free water is evident on the rock slab.
The big view of Broads indicates glide cracks opening slowly on Bonkers and above the blue ice.
This one in upper Stairs Gulch, although puzzling,
is probably caused by wind drifting on the pesky February facets.
It does leave some doubt about the settling of those. Just a little more load and...best left for avalanche experts.
Snow conditions
Lower elevations had a melt freeze crust gradually decreasing in thickness and strength with elevation gain on the shady side.
Off aspects had a stouter crust which softened with warming.
Upper elevation north facing was a mixed bag of variable wind crust and soft, settled wind pack powder.
There was a few inches of recent snow over a settled base out of the wind affected.
Heating initiated only shallow point release sluffs and rollers. Ski cutting warmed snow would produce small cinnamon rolls.
A little short lived early corn was found on mid elevation west facing.
Weather
High clouds to partly cloudy skies. Cool early morning temperatures warmed as the day progressed.
Never got uncomfortably hot on the shady side by early afternoon. Winds were light from the south.
Evaluation
Snow was mostly stable.
Instability would be from daytime heating and the slide in Stairs leaves some lingering doubts about faceted settlement.
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