Felt it was MANDATORY to observe NOBODY ascended Gobblers Knob from Porter Fork since the New Years storm cycle.

KUDOS to EVERYBODY for being EXCEEDINGLY PRUDENT.

Started from the Porter Fork trailhead around 9am today (Tuesday January 4). At the split to Raymond Cirque the uptrack seemed to be odd, more downtrack than up. Climbing into Davis Gulch I realized there was no uptrack to Main Gobblers.

In befuddled wonderment at my good fortune I broke trail from 8100 feet to 9600 feet. Gobblers untracked. Sweet.

More seriously I felt the need to document just how sensible everyone is being in the face of our horrifyingly dangerous snowpack. The downtracks in Davis Gulch were from a few folks exiting the Cabin shot.

Didn’t spend a lot of time evaluating the snowpack other than 10 or 20 pole strikes to the ground. At 9000 feet the snow depth averages 4 feet with lots of October snow, but locations within 100 feet of each other vary in depth from 3 feet to 5 feet depending on how terrain subtleties govern wind transport.

Pretty sure there was a rime event as discussed in photo 2 below. Weather was warm wind with a bit of snow and wind chill making it cold. Not much accumulation, some gusting winds but nothing to knock you down.

Hazard today seemed considerable in steep terrain. Porter Fork Gobblers has always struck me as more fetch than catch with the main catchment drainages being Alexander Basin and Yellow Jacket Gulch. Wasn’t particularly concerned I would trigger any of the paths off the peak from below four days after the last major loading event since the face is wind scoured with lots of shrubbery showing. The possibility a party from Big Cottonwood would drop the face and trigger an avalanche concerned me so I moved out of the path from Davis Gulch to the Benign Line quickly.

NWS point forecast for upper Porter Fork is 4 to 8 inches overnight, winds 20 mph and 10 to 14 inches tomorrow (Wednesday January 5) winds 26 mph. If this verifies the hazard will be high.

Photos

1.Gobblers Main Face looking DEE-LISH from Snowdrift Peak January 2. Thought for sure all the adventuresome young lads and lasses must be pounding the flip out of all the blower pow on that slope while I argue with oak in low elevation Lambs. This photo was taken about the same time Alta Patrol released East Greely and Little Water Peak was remotely triggered. Curious what the situation on Gobblers was at that time, but it shows good sense NOBODY was there.

2.1 foot square 3 inch thick slab came apart while I was breaking trail. This is combination rime and wind and is a definitively bad sign for snowpack stability in the next 24 to 48 hours. Checked the cracking red flag because of this.

3.Working to #MakeAmerica8Again on the Benign Line, 25 degrees steep. For those curious about powderhill etiquette and conservation, it is possible to have two super fun runs and leave ACRES of UNTRACKED snow for others to enjoy. Just saying …

Video is a minute musing about weather and windscoured shrubbery, 9500 feet Benign Trees Porter Fork Gobblers 1pm January 4.