Cawley

Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork

Upper Days Fork

10,200'

North

Unknown

Soft Slab

Persistent Weak Layer

Depth Hoar

20"

500'

600'

No big surprise here, given last night's excellent storm and the previous ground cover conditions. I observed this slide at about 1:30 PM while walking the ridge east from the top of Flagstaff, and it appeared to have been triggered remotely by the only other skier to traverse the ridge before me. The skier's broken trail was not connected to any portion of the crown, but the crown and bed surface looked pretty fresh, with just a touch of wind deposited graupel on top. The crown of the slide is at least 10 feet below the ridge on the north side, and in many places it is more than 50 feet down the north side. The slide extends from Oingo Boingo on the east several hundred feet over toward Two Dogs, although I do not believe it took out Two Dogs or the adjacent terrain east of Two Dogs. I did not get close enough to the crown to check it out, but it appears as though the slide took out the entire snowpack in this area. Bad visibility and no access to a good vantage point, so no photos. I suppose this slide could have been natural but given how fresh it looked I assume it was triggered by the other skier, perhaps unknowingly...

During a very brief window of sunshine at about 11:30 AM, I also observed what appeared to be a natural avalanche in East Hellgate, in a due east or slightly NE facing cup-shaped feature above the skiers traverse from Cardiff Bowl to the East Hellgate ski run. The slide appeared to be very fresh when I saw it. I did not see any skiers or tracks in the area, and the starting zone is overhung by steep rocky features, making it subject to enhanced wind-loading and an obvious place to harbor weak snow. From Flagstaff shoulder, the slide appeared to be about 50 feet wide and over a foot deep. I would do a separate observation for this but now it sounds like there has been some other funny business in the area, perhaps the involved party has better info on this E Hellgate Slide. At the time I noticed the E Hellgate slide, there was no other slide visible on S/E facing Cardiff...

I enjoyed a few runs on south facing LCC beginning around 11 AM and found the storm snow to be mostly held in place by the shape of the summer surface. I found decomposing melt-freeze crust underneath the storm snow at all elevations in these locations, and I did not find the new snow to exhibit siginificant fracturing properties in these locations--generally right side up and very, um, powdery. It didn't look like anybody ventured into West Bowl of Silver or Days today. I did not notice any obvious collapsing today, although I did my darn'dest to stay on S facing (having learned a lesson last winter). I hesitate to recommend the skiing due to the range of hazards present, but the snow quality is quite high.