Toured Gary’s Gulley in the upper reaches of Porter Fork the last 3 days.

Sumitted Peak 9776 Monday 1/20 with two laps in the southeast path down the Gulley. Tuesday 1/21 dropped the northfacing chute at 9600 feet on the north end of the Porter Slabs that feeds into the Gulley. Today, Wednesday 1/22, planned to repeat Tuesday’s tour but bailed during high PI.

First photo is Weds 1pm 24 hour snow and wind on Tuesday’s skinner, northfacing 9300 feet, close to six inches, quite a bit of graupel. Ascending from that point during a burst of high PI put Tuesday’s chute on standby.

Second photo is shooting crack about 3 feet long, 6 inches deep, at 9500 feet near the top of the south branch of the Gulley, which is the Mill B North ridge. This photo was taken about 15 minutes after photo 1. Deceiving since this was the switch on Tuesday’s skinner, disappeared under windblown snow. Tuesday’s skinner is causing the crack to appear alarming. Still, got a few more small cracks as I gained the ridge. Decided the signs were against dropping a steep windloaded chute during high PI and bailed in the low angle part of the Gulley.

Nikki’s forecast “As you lose elevation, you lose most of the problem” was spot on. Same aspect, steeper slope angle, 1000 feet lower, no problem.

Photo 3 is the obligatory snap of gargantuan cornices, bigger than cars, like school buses. Cornices are facing east into Porter Fork on the Mill B North ridge.

Snapped photo 4 Monday 1/20, a refrigerator or two block of cornice fallen 300 vertical feet and 600 linear feet from the ridge pictured in photo 3. Judging by the snow on the block probably calved off early Saturday during peak wind and PI. Some cornice block math: 3 feet square by 9 feet long is 81 cubic feet. At 20 pounds per cubic feet, that’s 1620 pounds of mass. Almost a ton of ice bounding down the slope. If it hit a person it would win.

Hazard today felt moderate above about 9500 feet, might have spiked for a brief period during peak PI to where steep slopes were certain to avalanche if provoked by a human.