March 21
Area:
Cardiff and Mineral from Alta
Location:
Alta guard station to Little Superior to Cardiac exiting Cardiac pass, reentry northeast facing Cardiac ridge, to Superior descending, to Cardiac pass, to Mill B south to upper Mineral exiting Mineral Fork.
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
7000’-11000’, slope angles to 40°, all aspects.
Avalanche activity:
Limited to small slides
of less than 6” deep, the result of cornice kicking
and rollers from sun warming. The rollers were found on both sun exposed and widespread in the late afternoon in Mineral Fork on north facing below about 9500’. A look into Broads from the top of Superior revealed little moivement of the glide above the blue ice.
Snow surface and conditions:
4-6” new snow over a variable old surface. South winds had scoured upper elevation south facing near the ridges, depositing the snow on north facing and building cornices. Snow was of medium density and was well bonded to a spongy partially refrozen old surface. Mid elevation snow was less and had already been absorbed into the damp old surface. Low elevation snow, below about 8500’ was water saturated, below 8000’, saturated to the point of being unsupportable as I think that’s where the rain snow line was at the beginning of the storm.
Weather:
Bluebird in the morning, with south winds gusting to perhaps 20mph. Increasing clouds and fog in the afternoon with spits and sputters of snow. Rain below 6500 on the drive down the canyon.
Evaluation:
Snow was mostly stable. Hazard was limited to shallow wind drifts along upper elevation north facing ridges and some limited cross loading on other aspects. There was also saturated unsupportable snow at lower elevations, although none deep enough to slide was found on any slope with steepness. Future hazard would be from sun warming and a lack of overnight cooling, dependent on cloud cover.
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