Went to Cardiff Fork from Alta today with a entry through LSB NE facing then on to the Room Of Doom NW facing from Cardiac Ridge. The new snow once again felt well bonded to the old surface even in steeper terrain. Skiing quality was a mixed bag, some slopes like LSB NE facing had the new snow blown into it from the SW winds and was creamy, consistent without much bottom feeding. Cardiac Ridge E facing had much of its main face wind scoured by the wind leaving an abundance of raised old hard tracks that would rattle your teeth at speed. By the time I made it to the Room of Doom in Mineral Fork the light had gone flat and the clouds were dropping in, couldn’t really tell what was going on in the bowl until I dropped in. Once in the chute in the top of the bowl I discovered it had been completely scoured of new snow and what was left was bulletproof sastrugi, this lasted most of the way down the bowl. The Mineral drainage had about half the amount of snow as Cardiff and barely a trace down lower. The snow below 8500ft was damp. I saw zero signs of any instabilities today no cracking, collapsing or even a small sluff, the biggest problem today was slipping while skinning in steeper terrain and I was glad I grabbed my whippet on the way out the door.

photos: Room of Doom from the top, with its upper bowl stripped of new snow and the rest of the way down consisted of frozen old avalanche debris with a skiff of snow covering it.

If it does snow much tonight going with low again, the snow on the hard surfaces is well bonded and I haven’t seen any signs of instabilities in the last few days