Observation: Ivory Flakes

Headed to the Ivory Flakes upper Cardiff Fork area from BCC today. The visibility wasn’t great but I did get a good look at the upper Cardiac area and didn’t note much recent avalanche activity. There was a slide on the rock slabs above Ivory Flakes located adjacent to the SE facing run off High Ivory, looked like a storm snow avalanche. There was probably more activity in Cardiac but the wind and new snow was most likely hiding it. There was no cracking or collapsing noted in our travels, the slab is fairly dense and stubborn but the structure is still suspect. We stuck to low angle slopes facing NE and E and didn’t note any instabilities. The snow pack is transitioning but slowly, and I’m still not sold on steep slopes with old October snow underlying them, all it takes is a thin spot in the slab and a collapse and it’s off to the races.

photos: rock slab slide, upper Cardiac

A few inches of super light density snow capping off the weekend’s storm snow, boot deep ski penetration, stayed cold and cloudy all day and would expect the S facing to still be good in the AM.