Camped up in Hogum 4/2-4/4 and watched the whole natural cycle roll from east facing to west facing with the first sun after the last storm. Heading in early 4/2 we saw headlamps going up White Pine coulie, Little Pine, and Tanners. It was going to be a short window before the sun did its work that day and the Wasatch locals were getting after it well before sunrise. We were surprised by the depth of the new snow but did minimal trail breaking thanks to a duo who went up to Maybird, over the small pass, and around the entire upper Hogum cirque into the NE bowl of South Thunder, booting up a SE aspect right as wet slides were starting to echo through the valley, their ability to thread the needle on a 10 mile tour breaking trail was impressive. (Photo 1) Thanks for the skinner!

We worked into some N facing lines @ 10,900', roping up to find entrances among the cornices. I was able to get a 500' long dry loose from a cornice cut that triggered a 4-8" windslab at the top entraining a decent amount of dry snow. Similar recent crowns were visible below cliffbands on similar aspects. (Photo 2)

While this was going on all of southeast/east facing thunder ridge was shedding giant waterfalls of loose wet slides. The first came down right after noon on Tuesday. (Photo 3) In some areas the loose wet would trigger a slab, typically in a gully feature propagating the walls of the narrow portion. (Photo 4)

4/3 was windless and warm. More wet shedding on E-S-W while N still held cold smoke. Winds picked up in the early evening of 4/3 and were sustained 20-30mph when I checked the weather stations. The increased winds blew away any good snow that was left on N so we packed up the morning of 4/4 and headed back out over the small pass. Dark clouds persisted through the morning with moderate winds and kept all the surfaces solidified in a hard crust, booting up the west side of the small pass as skinning on the firm crust was impossible. Happy to see some nice turns down the line north of Pheif. (Photo 5)

After spending the day in Hogum last week with bomber stability it was a thrill to be up there less than a week later and watch it all fall apart. Driving down the canyon 4/4 I stopped to take a photo of the exit of Coalpit (Photo 6), filled up with wet debris and a thin looking waterfall exit. Shows the difference NW v SW flow, bring on that NW this weekend!