January 5
Area:
Cardiff
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
7500-10600’, angles to 40°+, all aspects.
Avalanche activity:
Widespread sluffing, with some associated soft slabs bot northeast and northwest in upper Cardiff.
Sluffs on Caridiac ridge
Zoomed view of looker's right sluffs
Sluffs on the souther edge of the Cardiff rock slabs
Zoomed view of the rock slab sluffs
Some additional sluffs initiated with ski cutting. Upper Cardiac ridge and Holy Toledo. None ski cut had much punch as they were overrunning the natural activity which occurred late in the storm.
Slopes skied:
Holy Toledo, Cardiac ridge from the top, High Ivory from the top and George’s bowl.
Snow surface and conditions:
4-8” of new snow over a crusted base. The crust was firm, especially in the upper elevation terrain. Easy trail breaking, with skiing best on lower angles and at mid elevations. The steeper terrain was lumpy and those were easily felt while skiing.
Sluffing was common as indicated earlier.
Weather:
Partly cloudy and calm early. Instability showers with a flake or two and lowering clouds obscuring terrain later, with a bit of wind from the north and northwest gusting to perhaps 20 mph. Cool temperatures.
Snowpits:
None necessary. Pole probing to detect the firm crust.
Evaluation:
Instabilities limited to sluffing of the new snow on the old crusted surface. Cool temperatures will likely not settle this out completely and I would expect ski cutting slopes around 40° to continue producing sluffs. A period of wind will move the light density snow easily, with drifting likely. Those drifts will probably move downhill at a good pace because of the underlying crust.