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Observation: Cardiff/Mineral

Observation Date
2/22/2015
Observer Name
Hardesty, Diegel, Rich
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff/Mineral
Location Name or Route
East Kessler to Dark Ebony
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Wind Direction
East
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Cat and mouse with the sun.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
8"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

Low>medium density snow settled to 20cm at 10,000' in upper East Kessler area. Surface hoar - some well up to 10mm in diameter -noted up to and along the ridges.

Red Flags
Red Flags Comments
None -
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wet Snow
Problem #1 Comments

Loose wet and dry seemed to be the issues for today, though the sun never seemed to stick around for long to adversely impact the southerlies for wet activity. Dry loose snow needed angles of 40+ and these were low volume low speed medium density sluffs, well managed with slope cuts and terrain choices.

Comments

Sluffing as described above.

20cm of settled medium density sits above 2cm of small grained facets, which in turn sit above a thin layer of graupel. Facets/graupel from 2/9 storm. No slab to speak of; tilt tests and compression tests elicited movement at the interface, though energy and quality was poor. In the photo I'm pointing at this interface from 2/9.

SH on the skis

A full on feeding frenzy in the Tri-Canyons - with little activity to show for it

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