Planned Website Outage: The UAC website will be down for maintenance on June 17 from 2:00 - 7:00 PM MT.

Observation: Cardiff Fork

Observation Date
2/10/2017
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork
Location Name or Route
Cardiff Fork
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Moderate Snowfall
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Overcast skies in the AM turned to obscurred skies in the afternoon with moderate snowfall that mostly consisted of graupel. The new snow that was falling in the parking lot at Alta was damp flakes, with the rain line hoovering around 7500ft. Wind continued to blow in the moderate to strong catagory from the SW and was still blowing when I left around 2:00pm
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
1"
New Snow Density
High
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Rain-Rime Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Dense loose snow was what I was looking for but there was minimal terrain containing it. The south facing was saturated and damp up to about 9000ft where the damp underlying snow was capped off with a semi frozen crust. Thought the high due N facing might have some dense creamy snow so I skied the Keyhole entry into Cardiff Fork and realized it had what I believe to be a thin rime crust capping off the dense dry snow underneath, it was skiable but not that pleasurable, lower down the N facing was damp and saturated.

Comments

No real red flags today if you where above 9000ft except the wind, but there isn't much loose snow to move around, but that was starting to change by the time I left. I did note some concerning cracking just off the ridge line, the dense wind blown snow and graupel would crack out on the dry snow underneath the rime crust taking the crust with it, something to think about if we get a decent load of snow overnight. Another thing to think about might be the layer of graupel the the new snow load is going to be resting on, noted large amounts of graupel pooling beneath rock features and rolling down the steeper slopes. There where plenty of red flags below 8500ft, rain on snow, saturated snow pack that hasn't had a refreeze in at least 3 days, and recent wet slides from the unusually warm temperatures an all aspects.

Photos: Cracking below the rime crust on high N, graupel pooling, storm front rolling in in the afternoon, sagging cornices and minor wind loading on the ridge line, wet slide in Red Chute not sure of the timing.

Hazard really depends on the weather, with more wind and snow I would expect some wind loaded pockets might be sensitive on the high ridge lines tomorrow, and if it continues to cool down the lower elevations might get a shallow refreeze but it will take some time, and cold temperatures for the whole snow pack to freeze and consolidate. Todays seemed like moderate above 8500ft and considerable below that, so you kind of got to stick with considerable. thinking on the moderate side tomorrow unless we get a decent load of new snow and continued strong winds.

Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate