Get Your Ticket to the 32nd Annual Backcountry Benefit on September 11th! Support Forecasting, Awareness, and Education

Observation Date
Friday, December 14, 2012
Avalanche Date
Friday, December 14, 2012
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork » Cardiac Bowl
Location Name or Route
Little Superior/ Cardiac Bowl
Elevation
10,700'
Aspect
North
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Sympathetic Release
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Depth Hoar
Depth
14"
Width
20'
Comments

As one of my partners reached a hand up to the ridgeline from his stance on the south side, he triggered a 2" slab of fresh snow that stepped down to rocks a few feet behind him.

Snow structure along both N and S aspects of Superior E ridge is weak. In some places the existing snowpack is +2 ft of well-developed facets. In other places those facets are capped with both old and new wind slabs. Older slabs were only reactive in the most extreme terrain today, though I would expect an avalanche cycle in areas like the one we were in today if this week's forecasted snow manifests.

Coordinates