December 25

Bowman trail, Cabin run, Gobblers, Porter fork.

Elevations, slope angles and aspects

6200-10400', angles over 35°, north and west facing.

Snow conditions

There was no recent snow with a few additional bare spots on the Bowman trail.

Above about 8k, an inch of fresh, increasing to almost 3" at 10k.

Wind damage in the area was minimal but, east facing exposed had obvious viewed scouring.

raymond

Lower angled skied well, with light density recrystallized over a supportable base.

Steeper shady slopes sluffing easily.

Road was "fast and fun".

Weather

Blue skies, light wind and moderate temperatures.

Avalanche activity

Ski cutting at the top of the main face(bobslid) produced a point release sluff which was about 6" deep and 10' wide.

sluff

It ran on the crusted surface prior to the little December 14 storm.

Ski cutting the flanks initiated additional sluffs.

Talk about "loud powder"!

path

The sluff widened a little to maybe 20', turned the corner descending a surprising distance of about 1800 vertical feet.

bobslid

It didn't run into the main gully and left a shallow debris pile.

No other activity observed.

Snow pit

cabin-run-swow-profile

Evaluation

Sluffing was the observed instability.

I'd expect a continuation, with sluffs trenching into older snow in areas lacking deeper layer support.

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