Observer Name
Phil Straub
Observation Date
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Avalanche Date
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork
Location Name or Route
Cardiff Fork
Elevation
9,700'
Aspect
West
Slope Angle
36°
Trigger
Unknown
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
4.5'
Width
35'
Vertical
150'
Comments
We possibly triggered this slide remotely from approximately 200 meters downslope, but are unsure of the trigger as we only experienced a single significant event of cracking and collapsing and did not see it run. When we saw it above us a couple minutes later, it was obviously quite fresh.
Upslope winds transported snow from the lower angle meadows below into the bottom of a minor chute between the Hallway Couloir and Holy Toledo. The initial release also triggered a slide on a rock slab to skiers right, which pulled out to the ground. The avalanche ran about 150 vertical feet into trees, with several barrel sized blocks still intact. The instability seemed relatively isolated to the bottom of the chute and the slope below, where extensive hollow hard slabs are sitting on large faceted grains. The remainder of this west facing area did not appear to be heavily loaded and exhibited acceptable stability.
Unfortunately, between the hollow windslab and the fading light, I was unable to get a good photo.
Coordinates