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Observation: Cardiff Bowl

Observation Date
12/14/2015
Observer Name
Ben Peters
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Bowl
Location Name or Route
Cardiff Bowl
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Clearing toward the late afternoon in upper LCC with one or two glimpses of blue through the clouds, but mostly still socked in pretty heavily. Fairly light snowfall continuously, with precip rates picking up right around dark for the drive down. Light gusty winds out of the west on the ridge tops moving a small amount of snow around a bit, but nothing major.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
14"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
Beautiful right side up now new snow. The wind had been playing with the new snow a little bit - I was seeing everything from ~20 cms to 35 - 45+ cms in places. I didn't see any hard wind slabs forming even where snow was being deposited though, and I couldn't get anything to crack or move with ski cuts - there just wasn't all that much transport going on. Skiing was excellent powder - easily my best turns of the year so far, even if you still do have to be careful for buried rocks and stumps.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Biggest red flag is the known poor snowpack with new load. It seems like the storm underproduced forecasted amounts a little bit, at least high up, but it's still a solid new load for the snowpack. I didn't notice any collapses traveling around, but I also stuck to almost exclusively south facing slopes. Wind loading was very minor, mostly just moving soft snow around.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
It's hard to tell exactly how much of a concern this is on south facing slopes. I dug a pit right at the base of Cardiff Bowl and observed the same 2 crust layers with facets underneath that others have been seeing, but I couldn't get anything to move in an ECT, and even when I pulled it out with my shovel after the taps it didn't come out altogether as a cohesive slab. That being said - low angle slopes on Cardiff Bowl which gets almost as much skier compaction as inbounds runs probably aren't the best proxy for conditions elsewhere in the range. I didn't get onto anything other than South slopes, and I was racing daylight, so I'm not sure how the new load affected things on other aspects. We'll have to see how the snow tonight affects things.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
Normal storm skiing loose sloughs possible with the new powder.
Snow Profile
Aspect
South
Elevation
9,800'
Slope Angle
25°
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable