Avalanche: Cardiff Fork 12/30/2011

Observer Name: 
Piper/ Evelyn Lees
Observation Date: 
12/30/2011
Occurrence Date: 
12/30/2011
Occurrence Time: 
12:30pm
Region: 
Cardiff Fork
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Salt Lake
Location Name: 
Cardiff Fork
Printer-friendly version

Location

40° 35' 55.9212" N, 111° 39' 3.7764" W
Avalanche Characteristics
Elevation: 
9700'
Aspect: 
Northwest
Slope Angle: 
Unknown
Trigger: 
Skier
Trigger: additional info: 
Unintentionally Triggered
Remotely Triggered
Avalanche Type: 
Hard Slab
Weak Layer: 
Facets
Depth (avg): 
12"
Width: 
40'
Vertical: 
Unknown
Snow Profile
IMG_0809.JPG
General Comments

Triggered this pocket sympathetically from below while on an up track I rarely use, beneath the cliffs of Holy Mole. I was skinning on lower angle terrain, in sparse trees, below this steep rollover. I had skied Holy Toledo, which was generally scoured, so I was surprised by the depth of the slab but in the photo you can barely see the erratic winds loading snow (graupel) over the convexity. I suspect this avalanche ran on the 28th's rain/rime crust.

IMG_0810.JPG
General Comments 2

Forecaster Comments:  I happened to be traveling though the area with Rick shortly after, and we went up to the crown.  We got a small collapse directly beneath us as we traveled across the debris.  Evelyn Lees

Slide3.JPG
General Comments 3

Forecaster comment:  The bed surface had so drifted in that we couldn't tell if the slide had occurred yesterday or today - it was actually only about an hour previous. Strangely, the new pooled snow/drifted snow cracked. Evelyn Lees

Slide2.JPG
General Comments 4

Forecaster Comment: In the area of the crown I looked at, the weak layer was about 4 inches (10 cm) below the Dec 28 rain crust, in a band of very weak facets.  Evelyn Lees

Slide1.JPG
Javascript is required to view this map.

Site Built by Dharmatech
Site Refresh by Flint Creative