Glorious blue bird day in the mountains, especially on the summit of Gobblers Knob.

Toured Porter Fork the last three days, capping the spree today (Sun 1/19) on Gobblers.

The storm Thursday (1/16) into Friday (1/17) left about a foot of settled snow. Friday was quite windy with light snow. Saturday was delightfully calm and clear, Sunday more so. Storm snow and wind pillows seem to have settled out and bonded to the underlying snow. No red flags on the north half of the compass though the south warmed up so cornices were dripping water during the heat of the day.

First photo is of Gobblers from the Thaynes/West Porter ridge Saturday (1/18), 2 linear miles distance, and the wind sculpting is easily visible.

Isolated a column at about 8500 feet Sunday (1/19) morning during ascent, which failed during isolation about 2 feet down, Q1 shear, second photo. I think this is the Holiday layer Drew noted in his ob from the Meadows, 1/8. Snow underneath this layer is dense strong 1 finger 3 feet down to the October snow at the ground. Total snow depth is about 5 feet. Thursday storm snow shears Q3 about 1 foot down. Facets are everywhere on Gobblers and in Porter Fork, noted in the photo, present from the peak at 10,200 down to the trailhead at 6,000.

Third photo is wind crust at about 9000 feet, with wind sculpting and facets evident.

Skiing was actually pretty good, much better than my last visit 1/6. Snow was definitely wind affected but the crust was not as difficult as the third photo might suggest.

Pack in Porter Fork is as close to bomb proof as it gets for mid January. There are a few nooks and crannies I wonder about, such as Davis Gulch and everything off high Gobblers into Alexander Basin, but my personal sense form skiing and observing what others are skiing is avalanches are unlikely in all but the most radical terrain. Gobblers got pounded today (Sun 1/19) by at least 5 touring parties, perhaps as many as 20 people. Dozens of steep lines got skied without incident. The pack off the peak is highly variable. Pencil/knife hard wind slab in one spot, two feet of sugar rot in the next. But there is no continuous slab on top of a weak layer capable of avalanching.

If we count descending off the peak of Gobblers as upper elevation, I would say the hazard today was low at all elevations on the north half. I don’t have a good feel for the upper Cottonwoods since I haven’t been there for two months but my guess is the pack there is stronger than in Porter Fork. Trying to reconcile the avalanche in Mill B South with what I observed on Gobblers my first reaction was that when I looked at White Snake, which is south, it was a little too radical and the snow wouldn’t be as good as in Porter Fork. An avalanche there seemed possible but I didn’t give it much thought until I saw the Mill B south ob.