Cold morning! Big gusts and sustained winds out of the WNW alongside the Obelisk. Photo 1 looking east at sunrise backlit flagging off ridgelines. Opted for a more WSW line into Hogum instead of Hogum 200 in hopes of softer snow. Found some small and stubborn windslabs below the scoured and rocky windzone. No slough, shooting cracks, or collapses. The snow was sticky in that cold windboard kind of way, almost squeaky. Photo 2 watched seven up the skinner for the needle on a sunny bench below UPWOP. The first rider sent some slough/wind slab down that ran over the two lookers left kickturns below the end of the true coulie. Other than that the slope was locked up and six more descended with impressive stability. Once the line cleared out the temps were still holding on the cold side so we bumped up their skinner to check out Coalpit Headwall. Photo 3 shows the graupel factory from Tuesday's storm, significant pools everywhere. The top traverse in photo 2 was getting a lot of sun (SE) but we got some help from thin clouds. We put 4 riders on the headwall with no cracking, slough, etc. Like I said, impressive stability in comparison to similar aspects further up canyon after reading yesterday's obvs this morning. The riding surface was firm in some areas and had pools of grapuel in others, unsure what the next load of snow will do with this interface. FYI the coverage on the waterfall at the bottom of Coalpit is thin, good to have a backup if you can't find the fixed rope!

Sidenote: I was impressed by everyone's ability to communicate, there were two groups of 4, two groups of 2, and a solo splitboarder (13 total) all heading for the same-ish objectives on the only sunny day between storms in some big avalanche terrain. As we leapfrogged on the skintrack from the trailhead we shared radio channels, stayed in touch throughout the day, shared beta, and different members were flexible in their plan in order to keep the zone slightly less crowded and spaced out - ie waiting to ascend the skinner until the line was cleared out. I knew there was a chance that waiting could make the day a wash, if the SE aspect got too hot it wouldn't have been safe to ascend. Luckily the temps and clouds granted us passage but I would rather do the whole tour again another day than head up a slope like that, after seeing the gusting ridgetops, filled with people overhead.