Observation Date
1/20/2025
Observer Name
dindy
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon
Location Name or Route
days/cardiff/mineral
Comments
Travel was Alta-Hideaway-Main Days-Hallway- Dark Ebony. It was really cold brilliantly bluebird and the upper basins were empty. I saw nor heard any signs of instability and most of the slopes in upper days have tracks in them. Ski conditions are five stars.
Over the course of the last several weeks I have done my best to try and pay attention to the slope history of my favorite north facing areas in upper/mid big cottonwood canyon. This year is a standout in the complexity and variety of slope histories the central wasatch is experiencing. Many years we are lucky to see our pwl wiped out by massive 5+" water storms where all slopes avalanche at the same time. That is not the case this year. So often I hear "its a tale of two snowpacks" or "stay away from repeaters," while the present reality of these slopes reveals something more interesting going on. Talking to The Grom, he said it's not a tale of 5 snowpacks, but 1 story with many chapters.
The UAC does a great job forecasting for our zones, but there is just so much terrain and with this years variability, we must as skiiers zoom in from the big picture and analyze each slope and basin directly. For a short time the Mount Washington Avalanche center in NH actually forecasted individual slopes in Tuckermans. Right Gully low, Chute considerable etc. Not that this is possible in the central wasatch, but with the amount of skiiers and digital information, it almost is.
I chose several slopes that I love to ski and which fall under the broad umbrella of slopes that have avalanched this year. Each one of these slopes slid on a different day in the last month. I find this to be fascinating and yet in the forecast theyre all just repeaters, stay away.
- Main Days: Human triggered 12/17! Massive basin wide. 100" of snow, no recorded avalaches or ski descents since.
- Two Dogs: Human triggered 11/28. Natural 1/3. The november pocket remains undisturbed, untested, while the big january event- covered in tracks and today, even a skin track. 70" since avalanche, no slides.
- Jaws/Hideaway: Zero info. Well laid tracks from yesterday by a party of 2 centerpunching each line. Each path had large rounded debris piles in the runouts. Im assuming these all went naturally 12/27.
- Hallway Adjacent: Scary, recent, human triggered slide to the ground 1/15. 8" snow since and very cold temps.
- Ivory: Scary, recent helicopter remote triggered slide to the ground 1/14.
- Cardiac Ridge: Big natural 1/7. Several slides at once leaving areas of hangfire and different bed surfaces. It appears to have broken to the ground near the top, but didnt break as deep on the flanks (thanks to wizard for probing.) Skiied several times, 40" snow since and only new snow avalanches reported.
- Cardiac Bowl: Who knows. Unskiied untested until today a skin track leading 1/2 way up the bowls east side. Seems like there is a debris pile, top looks scoured. Gonna say 12/27.
- East Fork: It looks like everything in Mineral happened naturally late in the cycle in line with Cardiac. 1/7 or later. Hard to say if the top path went, but as you descended the avalanches were well connected and ripped to the ground leaving rocks, facets and big debris piles in thick trees. Maybe 20" of snow since and less as you lose elevation. Several ski lines throughout the basin including room of doom.
Thats just the slopes I'm actively paying attention to. There are so many more chapters to be explored in the many basins of this diverse range.
As you can see, there is a drastic difference in the amount of snow that has fallen on each path since. Therefore we must be much more specific when we talk about repeaters and what it means for the rest of the season. For me, the slopes that avalanched that have received the most snow since are less suspect than slopes and pockets that maybe have not yet avalanched (upper days headwall from oingo to two dogs or the ivory flakes, little superior north?).
Going forward if we ever get more snow, I think the most suspect slopes will be those that ripped to the ground most recently. (mineral, hallway, millcreek?)
Photo 1: Alta Collins "new water" since snowfall began. Shows 4 main water events corresponding to the dates of various avalanches. (nothing happend yesterday so that storm doesnt count)
2: some of the slopes im talking about in upper days.
3: slopes mentioned in upper cardiff and mineral.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates