Avalanche
- Weak Layer
- New Snow
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 36 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- North
- Avalanche Problem
- New Snow
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3048 m
While traversing Cardiff Peak from east to west around 3 PM, I noticed what appeared to be a new snow avalanche under the north-facing cliffs on Cardiff Peak. Light was flat, but from the ridge it looked like debris was partially obscured, which suggested to me the slide occurred overnight. It looks to involve the ~15" reported in upper LCC, and seems like a likely place for a natural, storm snow avalanche given all the graupel and south winds overnight. Further west on the ridge toward two trees, I dropped a good sized cornice which rolled down the slope to the flats and entrained new snow, but it did not trigger a slab avalanche on the steep slope just west of the crown in the attached photo.
Skiing was good on the S facing in LCC, although there was some exposed crust on convexities, and down on the two trees run-out at ~8400' the snow was starting to feel pretty warm.