Avalanche

Avalanche: Cardiff Bowl

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Quick report

Slope Angle
38°

Avalanche

Slab Width
9 m
Weak Layer
Wet grains
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
137 m
Avalanche Type
Wet Loose
Slab Thickness
76 cm
Trigger Detail
Intentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
Southeast
Avalanche Problem
Wet Snow
Start Zone Elevation
3048 m

Walking around in Cardiff today I was noticing how saturated the old snow was that was underlying the 5 inches of new snow, on my return from Cardiff I put a ski cut in the top of Cardiff Bowl and triggered a wet slide that rapidly gouged down 2 to 3 feet and widened out to about 30 feet at the toe. The slide ran fairly fast for a wet slide and left a 10 to 15 foot deep debris pile at the bottom. I'm thinking that the rain from yesterday has loosened the bonds between the melt freeze grains and with no solid refreeze in the last few days things are becoming unstable.