Quick report
It was a very quiet day in the upper Cardiff backcountry with excellent skiing, but the facets near the ground on the high north side of the compass are still lurking.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>We traveled up Cardiff to the lower angle slopes in the High Ivory area. Hasty pits and pole penetrations near our high point of 9900' revealed about 40" of snow with a layer of weak facets near the ground and a fairly uniform snowpack above it. Lower down on the slope, the snow depth was only about 2-3' and the weak facets were found only intermittently. The new snow was dense and skied fast. You could not feel any of the old snow surface. We experienced no settlement or cracking in the new snow. There was some wind effect on the snow at the higher elevations, but not enough to form a slab in the areas we traveled.</p>
The new snow was mostly graupel and other heavily rimed snow pellets. But it was right side up...not punchy.