Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Most red flags present today. SW facing in Cardiff Bowl had multiple natural slab releases. Everything east facing in Cardiff Fork ran naturally in the storm snow and some avalanches gouged deeper into older, harder layers. We noticed a rather large deep slab avalanche underneath the Ivory Flakes. LSB also avalanched across the entire face starting just below the cliffs of the black knob. Snowpack structure is fairly poor on most aspects. South facing snow pits in Grizzly Gulch yesterday revealed multiple crust/NSF layers that produced Q1 shears when pried out after ECTs. Not the standard south facing snowpack in the Wasatch.</p>
Heads up conditions mixed with stellar snow out there today. While breaking trail up to pole line pass, our group observed several 20-50 foot wide storm slab avalanches on the SSW aspect in the bowl. We had thought they might have been from highway control work but when we ran into the some of the UDOT guys at the end of they day, they said that they hadn't shot that area. The view NW from Cardiff Peak revealed the impressive and (very) widespread natural cycle that Drew mentioned in this morning's advisory. EVERYTHING in sight between LSB and Mid Ivory had slid (photo 1) with the only exception being the Cardiac Ridge run from the saddle south of the Flakes (just enough room for about 4 sets of tracks). Many of the slides ran full track or close to it, entraining all the new snow on the way down. A few stepped down into deeper layers including a 2-3 foot deep, 100 foot wide crown underneath the south end of the Ivory Flakes area (Photo 2). We skied a few laps in Cardiff Bowl, setting off a few soft slab avalanches near the cave. These broke out wide but only in the new snow and seemed very sluggish, definitely on the manageable side of things. At the end of the day we walked over to 2 Trees hoping that the snow hadn't gotten too damp. Unfortunately it had so we headed back to the east for the home run.
Forecaster Comments: Thanks for the excellent observation of conditions and activity.
---Photo quality sucks, sorry.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>This has become a problem on most aspects over the last few weeks, not just relegated to the north side of the compass</p>
First run was from Cardiff peak to the road. Upper bowl was blower but we noticed some slight sun effect closer to the highway at around 11:30. Did a few more laps in the upper bowl before checking out and bailing on Two Trees because of excessively damp snow.