Avalanche: Cardiff Peak

Brogen

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Peak

Cardiff Chutes / Tetris

9,900'

Northeast

Snowboarder

Unintentionally Triggered

Soft Slab

Wind Drifted Snow

New Snow/Old Snow Interface

14"

80'

150'

Was a bit ambitious today. Approached Cardiff Pass with plans to ride “Tetris”. During our approach, visibility was low, light snow was falling, and we had generally reactive snow under our feet. Once at the pass, the first skier to be setting a skinner up to Cardiff Peak popped a 2ft windslab cornice that had formed overnight. It didn’t travel or move any snow down the SE side of the bowl. I strapped in a bit above the cornice pop and traversed to the Cardiff Chutes Ridge. The snow was not reactive on this traverse across the bowl. While traversing SE along the ridge towards Tetris, a 6in deep by 8ft wide slab broke below me and ran about 10ft into the trees below. I then switched to booting to get to the top of Tetris. At this point I’m pretty certain I’m going to have a little movement during my descent. I tried to stick with a line that limited my exposure to a break above me, especially during the top section. I also had my buddy in a safe spot above my exit point ready to go. All of the above being said, I rode it great. Nothing happened at the top, and the apron was smooth. Visibility hadn’t improved by then and from where I had stopped, I did not noticed a crown. Only what I thought was a little bit of sluff. Another buddy of mine went up later in the day and sent me the photos attached. I also rewatched my GoPro footage and sure enough, it was much more than sluff. Bad call today. -- Last photo by Debruille