Observation Date
12/15/2020
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork
Location Name or Route
Ivory Flakes
Comments
Headed up Cardiff Fork from BCC, made it into Cardiac then descended Ivory Flakes. On the way up I triggered an avalanche remotely from 30 feet away, wouldn't have know that it avalanched if I did walk around the corner. We had already experienced cracking and collapsing on our way up. The collapse was triggered on the NW facing then wrapped around to the due N and triggered a slide about 40ft wide, about a foot deep and ran to the bottom of the hill. I didn't put this on the avalanche list because it was more of a test slope and not a ski objective. That being said collapsing and cracking were the norm today and we stayed away from steep slopes of consequence for the rest of the day. We're in a tricky spot right now, the slopes with old snow that are better for skiing are also the most suspect, we are still lacking a consolidated slab but the writings on the wall and even taking a ride in a super soft slab is not recommended. I jump on many test slopes today most cracked and collapsed but only the steepest one released and actually slid, it was in the 35% range. It was kind of surprising how well connected the collapses were, we collapsed a couple slopes that spider webbed for a couple hundred feet.
photos: avalanche and cracking, and a video with poor sound quality, what I was saying in the video is that we remotely triggered the slide from 30 ft. away it was at 9100ft due N and ran on a foot of large grain faceted snow.
Video
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable