Observation Date
1/24/2022
Observer Name
Champion/Antenucci/Gaffney/Krusinga
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork » Cardiac Ridge
Location Name or Route
Cardiff Pass - Cardiac Ridge
Comments
Woke up this morning to large hoar frost on my windshield, and the spent the day doing a classic Little to Big Cottonwood up and over. We Traveled from Central Alta up to Cardiff Pass, dropped into Cardiff Fork, and then climbed and skied Cardiac Ridge. We looked into Room of Doom, but the entrance was both very thin, faceted, and rocky as well as wind loaded in isolated areas. Opting out of traveling in the thinly covered terrain, we came back down Cardiac Ridge. Throughout the day the light to moderate breeze kept the snow surface cold and made for relatively easy travel with occasional areas of the firm and icy skinning.
During our tour, we were primarily looking at the weakening snow surfaces and the interface between last week's few inches of snow and other buried near surface facets. On most aspects, any remaining soft snow has begun weakening. In many places, it was just about an inch or so of weakening snow that sat atop a firm wind board or firm crust of some sort. Climbing Cardiac Ridge, we stuck our shovels in on a SE aspect at 10,259' and found an HS of snow between 155-175cm. The snow surface was a P- (Pencil Hard minus) crust with about 1cm of weakening snow atop of it. Below the P- crust there was about 5cm of first hard decomposing precipitation particles with another 1F crust below it before the snowpack became uniform going from a 4F to 1F slab as far as we dug down. This is similar to what Drew saw the other day, with multiple near-surface facet interfaces sitting near the surface.
While the near-surface facets, and weakening snow felt pretty uniform on Cardiac Ridge, in many areas the weakening snow surface did not feel very connected or uniform. The bump in winds yesterday has moved snow around, created firm surfaces in some upper elevation scoured areas, and then allowed for drifting in areas below ridgelines, in gullies, and near sub ridges. As well, true south is feeling the impact of the warm weather and sun, and is firm and often slick in areas and didn't see much signs of faceting on those aspects. While both of those firm surfaces could become a potential bed surface for new snow to run fast and far on, I think the lack of uniform and connectivity of the weakening snow surface could be a good thing.
Photo of the frost hoar on my windshield this AM.
Some photos of flagging, wind drifted snow and textured snow.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Low
Coordinates