Avalanche: Cardiac Ridge

Observer Name
mark white
Observation Date
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork » Cardiac Ridge
Location Name or Route
Cardiac Ridge, Hansens
Elevation
10,600'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
37°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
2'
Width
500'
Vertical
1,000'
Comments

Saw the debris of this avalanche when there was a moment of good light and decided to hike up to the crown and see if it went into old snow, sure enough it did. Looking at the crown revealed that it slid on facets that formed under the crust from last Sundays small storm, and took the crust with it. There were also crowns on the roll over that revealed graupel that remained intact under the old heat crust. The slide pulled out in the upper chutes and propagated out wider on the main slope, then broke into the old crust on the roll over and got a bit wider. The avalanche ran about a thousand feet and left a deep debris pile at the bottom. Thinking wind loading was the culprit, the NE chutes were being cross loade by the strong NW winds.

Photos: the crown were you can see the layering, new snow, crust, facets, graupel, whole deal and debris.

Comments

Here's 3 more photos added to this observation by Bruce Tremper. He took the photos from the top of Toledo across the valley:

This is an overview of Cardiac Ridge area where you can see a number of recent avalanches--5 or 6 depending on how you count them.

Here's the looker's right side of Cardiac Ridge

Here's the looker's left side of Cardiac Ridge. Interestingly enough, just out of the photo to the left, I watched a lone skier traverse towards the left most slide and he then booted straight up a narrow couloir to the ridge and walked the ridge, all without triggering anything more, as near as I could tell.