Observer Name
two wills
Observation Date
Monday, January 8, 2024
Avalanche Date
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Cardiff Fork
Location Name or Route
Lightning bolt
Elevation
10,400'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Depth
12"
Width
100'
Vertical
500'
Comments
I don't know when this came down but I haven't seen it reported. Sometime yesterday is my guess? We did not get close enough to gather accurate data so the size and depth are a guess as well. Size 2? I'm guessing this was a result of westerly wind loading events. Potentially triggered by dry loose from above. Elsewhere we generally did not observe much of a slab.
We did witness a snowboarder trigger a soft slab of presumably wind drifted snow on an east aspect off of cardiff peak.
We also witnessed numerous long running natural dry loose avalanches which came down within the storm and after on east aspects.
Two photos below of the lightning bolt avalanche
Comments
scattered clouds, some broken low elevation clouds mid day bringing trace precip. low density snow offers excellent riding conditions on all aspects unaffected by wind. very busy day in cardiff, birds buzzing overhead frequently, 20+ parties, skintracks abundant
pictured below are loose dry slides along cardiac ridge.
Comments
on another note, I found buried surface hoar, with the weak nsf, which was still on the surface in my last ob. some of it was buried intact on intermediate ridge. I did not dig extensively, just in a similar location to my pit here last week. You can see a sizeable feather in the photo below on a 1mm grid along with some faceted grains and a little bit of new snow fragments. The goal today was mostly powder skiing..
Coordinates