Observation: Cardiff Pass

Observation Date
12/14/2020
Observer Name
Derek DeBruin
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Pass
Location Name or Route
Cardiff Pass
Weather
Weather Comments
Overcast and obscured. Spent most of our way up and down the pole line to Cardiff Pass in a cloud with max visibility of a few hundred feet. Not terribly cold, wind was quite light, and consistent S- snowfall, up to S1 at times.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
6"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
About 15cm of new snow, mostly unconsolidated, with moments of soft storm slab at F+/4F hardness.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
I'm sure some avalanches were out there somewhere, but given the very low vis, we certainly couldn't see them. Snowfall had and continued to occur, but given the low density, I can't really call it "heavy." No wind effects on the pole line, and very little at the pass or the top of Cardiff fork. The biggest concern we saw was the snowpack structure (see photos below).
Comments
NW aspect just shy of 10,000ft, with snow depth between 50 and 70cm depending on rocks at the surface. 15cm of new snow, F hardness at the surface, trending to F+/4F on the way down. Below the new snow was crust sandwich (crusts each a couple cm thick indicated by the red lines) with facets in between. Below the lower crust was facets to the dirt. Not an inspiring structure. Calling it moderate hazard in our location, but I have no doubt there was and will continue to be considerable hazard any place wind loading was happening.
Beneath Cardiff Peak on an E aspect at 10,000ft we generally found new snow on an impressively thick and hard crust, facets below. Pictured here is about 12-15cm of stout supportable P hard crust.
Spatial variability was also in full effect. Within 2 meters of the super stout and supportable crust pictured above, this small block of soft slab peeled off in front of my ski. It was resting atop a crust so thin and weak it was barely differntiable from the underlying facets. Quite a big change between the tips and tails of my skis.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable