Observation Date
12/18/2016
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork
Location Name or Route
Cardiac Ridge
Weather
Sky
Clear
Weather Comments
Cold and clear with a very light breeze.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments

Light density powder on most slopes, with some thin wind skin and crust in the non wind protected terrain.

Comments

Today I had my first look into Upper Cardiff Fork after the week of storms. Seemed fairly obvious that most of the E-NE facing terrain had avalanched at some point in the storm, one slide under the rock bands in Ivory Flakes looked to have happened quite a bit later in the storm than the rest, thinking Friday night or Saturday morning, the crown was about 2ft deep and 100ft wide, looked to be a wind slab triggered by snow shedding off the rock slabs, may have been graupel pooling under the cliffs that was the weak layer. The main activity today was shallow sluffing of the surface snow, noted skier triggered sluffs in Toledo Chute, Cardiac Ridge and Holy Toledo. No real red flags in the terrain covered, no cracking or collapsing and the new snow has settled out nicely. We seem to be working on a bomber base at this point in time.

Photos: skier triggered sluffs in Toledo Chute and by the power line, older slide debris on Cardiac Ridge, the slide I mentioned in Ivory Flakes

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