November 28
An open book.
Getting there wasn't easy
By the time we did
Location
Starting at the Alta Guard station ascending to Cardiff pass, then traversing the ridge to the Keyhole, descending into main Cardiff. Ascended the east facing Cardiac ridge area up onto the ridge and continued to the top descending to the flats. Repeated. Ascended the northeast facing sub ridge to the base of Cardiac bowl, continuing the ascent to the base of the chutes, descending both pitches to the flats. Ascended the north facing to Powerline ridge descending a bit then up to Cardiff pass descending the south facing back to the guard station.
Weather:
It was partly cloudy with some afternoon convection upper elevation clouds passing through. Very cool temperatures.
Snow:
The snow is made up of several inches of light density over the stiffer wind affected over a variable old snow base. Cool temperatures are preserving the snow even on the south facing with the off aspect of east and west continued light and dry. Old wind affect has settled with little tension remaining and the stiff wind drifts of the last coupla days have recrystalized somewhat.
We did find one of the lingering sensitive pockets in the upper Cardiac bowl with a good collapse and shooting crack.
This area received no skier traffic and had a shallow snow pack over rocks prior to the storm. That combination with several people piled in close proximity led to the collapse.
Bottom Line:
The snow is mostly stable with isolated lingering unstable pockets. I'd expect those to increase somewhat with the predicted storm and the heavier density snow, but wouldn't expect any sort of widespread avalanching, dependent of course, on new snow-old snow bonding.