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Observation: Cardiff/Mineral

Observation Date
4/24/2014
Observer Name
Kikkert
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff/Mineral
Location Name or Route
Cardiff/Mineral
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Wind Direction
South
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Nice and cold (for late April) in the early AM and was slow to warm with intermittent clouds. Sun finally seemed to come out with enough force for east facing to start getting damp around 11 am. Upper elevation north facing stayed dry until our noon exit. Winds were starting to increase from the S and SW, but were confined mostly to ridgelines, and were mostly light with some gusts in the moderate range.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
4"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments

New snow settled to about 4 inches in most places. However, slope exposure to the post frontal NW winds played a huge role in whether there was any new snow left at all. The dust layer from Monday's strong SW winds is pretty drastic, and you can easily see where the NW winds scoured things down to the frozen brown snow. Looking across the canyon at the alpine ridge was not pretty, with upper White Pine, Red Pine, etc all having been scoured down to the brown. As long as you stayed on white snow, the skiing was pretty decent.

Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wet Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments

Wet activity was not much of a problem in the AM given the cold night and cloud cover. However, things were starting to heat up as we left and we were able to initiate small push-a-lanches on steep east facing terrain starting around 11 am. Would imagine the normal wet loose activity common after these spring storms got going in the afternoon. However, given the shallow amount of new snow, and the very solidly frozen base, would imagine most of these to have been pretty easily managed in terrain without a lot of consequences. Maybe a bit more of this tomorrow, before the next storm cools things off. Probably the biggest hazard today was the rock hard brown snow in areas where the new snow had been scoured off.

Comments

Photos below of the stark contrast between the dirty snow from Monday and the new snow, small push-a-lanche in Cardiac Bowl (below skier), and some of the wet activity pre storm in Mineral. Always too bad when we get these dirt layers as they mess up the late season spring skiing (and melt our snow quicker).

Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Low