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Observation: Cardiff Fork

Observation Date
4/15/2017
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork
Location Name or Route
Cardiff Fork
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
South
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Cold in the AM with light S winds keeping the surface snow cool, gradual warming in the afternoon.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

E,W,NW, S all had a melt freeze crust that was frozen solid in the AM, NE,N above 9,800ft had a breakable heat crust resting on a thin layer of dense dry snow.

Comments

My kind of corn skiing! started late and lasted a while. Started up to Cardiff Pass at 10:30am and by 11:00 the due south facing at 10'000ft had soften nicely and provided some of the better corn skiing of the year. Continued over Cardiff Peak and decided to give NE facing Little Superior a shot, definitely not as user friendly as the south, in that one run I encountered a few soft turns at the top, breakable crust in the middle and boiler plate conditions on the bottom portion. Decided to change aspect to E and skied Hansen's between Cardiac Bowl and Cardiac Ridge which had soften nicely by 1:00pm, not really true corn because it hasn't baked out enough but the surface crust that capped off the dense layer of dry snow underneath had soften and the skiing was not bad. Stayed too cool for any type of real wet activity today and the SE was beginning to crust up again on our exit at 3:00pm.

Photos: Glide cracks forming on the rock slabs above Hansen's, heat crust capping off dense dry snow on NE and N, wet activity from earlier this week, surprised to see rime in the trees this time of year, and not bad skiing where its smooth.

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