Observation: Grizzly Gulch

Quick afternoon tour up Grizzly Gulch along Twin Lakes pass ridgeline. Winds seemed stronger than forecasted, with fresh deposits and some recent cornice development, including well down off of ridgelines. Kicked a few cornices along Twin Lakes Pass ridgeline, but none producing any results. Overall cornices were not that sensitive. There did seem to be quite a few naturals along the ridgeline, with crowns that have since filled in.

Quick tests were showing storm snow instabilities to have mostly settled out - and wind drifts from Wednesday were non-reactive today. Was able to ski cut a few fresh pockets of wind slabs from this afternoon's winds but they were shallow (10-15 cms/4-6").

Our usual stability tests don't seem that helpful with the current snowpack setup, and there is not that much we can do other than give the snowpack time to adjust to this significant load. Hopefully the Christmas storm will come in with little wind (the 12/24 afternoon Cottonwood Cyn forecast did not highlight strong winds) and provide continued good riding and travel conditions on low angled slopes.

Odd to look at terrain such as Emma's, West Bowl, and Days Fork untracked.

Considerable or High hazard? Naturals now seem unlikely, but I don't know of anyone who would travel in avalanche terrain right now.

Merry Christmas!

Snow from overnight was mostly wind affected. Hard to characterize the snowpack other than "deep". Was finding some depths up to 180 cms (6'), but mostly ranging from 1.2 - 1.5 meters (4-5') Wednesday's winds created dense, slabby, inverted conditions that are making trailbreaking almost ridiculous in spots.