February 16
Location:
Started at the Alta guard station and ascended Toledo bowl descending Holy Toledo to the flats continuing over power line ridge into main Cardiff. Ascended cardiac bowl taking the third or looker’s left chute to the ridge continuing to the summit of Superior.
Today was Gambrelli's birthday.
Snow:
6-8” new snow over a mainly crusted base. The snow was a bit inverted, with a few inches of wind affected snow over the fluff. Best on lower slope angles as the old crust was a little slippery. Snow was well bonded with only minor and short running sluffing within the upper layer. A bit of cracking but, ski cutting wouldn’t induce movement. Snow is a bit deeper at lower elevations and the skiing is a bit better.
Descended the skier’s left chute to the upper flat. Ascended to the top and descended into Mill B south. Ascended to the notch entry into Upper Mineral
Descended, continuing out Mineral.
Weather:
Some lingering clouds early, with clearing by noon. Cool temperatures. Some light westerly breezes.
Bottom Line:
Snow is mostly stable. Some concerns linger for isolated wind drifts and wet activity with warming.
February 17
Location:
Started at Porter fork and ascended main Porter to the ridge. Traversed west to the peak overlooking the rock slab and main Porter, descending to the flat.
Weather:
It was a bluebird with only a few puffs of wind and cool temperatures.
Snow:
12”+ of new snow right side up and settled. There had been significant sluffing along the rock slabs during the storm, with one running a couple of hundred feet. A ski cut from the ridge into a small drift did produce a fracture of 8” or so and less than ten feet wide. That only ran a few feet.In the other chute ski cuts got several sluffs running. The angle there was over forty degrees. Those ran a hundred feet or so, very slowly, without a punch(a person could ski through them). No other evidence of instability.
Ascended the same track and traversed east to the first summit descending the chute just west of the peak into main Porter, continuing out to the road.
Bottom Line:
The snow is mostly stable. There is some isolated hazard from lingering soft and active wind drifting along the ridges and on the steepest slopes. Wet slides would be a problem with warming.