3/10/213/11/2021 Went to visit the Cardiac area of upper Cardiff today from the LCC side. The weather was partly cloudy, and cooler than it’s been in a week.
The only instabilities noted were sluffing of the new snow on the slick underlying crust. There was 4 to 5 inches of light density new snow on a variety of old bed surfaces, a melt-freeze crust on the S end of the compass, windboard and some soft snow on the N end. The south facing got enough sun to be crusted tomorrow.
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3/9/213/9/2021 Today I stayed lower in the canyon, at a lower elevation to avoid the frozen snow surface up high. The weather was mostly cloudy with little wind and still warmer than usual temperatures.
I skied Tanners slide path from 9000ft in elevation, that’s where the snow surface was still frozen, then moved down canyon to Maybird slide path and hiked up to 8000ft where the frozen debris stopped my progress. I was up Tanners on Sunday but hadn’t been up Maybird since it avalanched. Tanners got cleaned out last year, but Maybird hasn’t run this big in years. The slide in Maybird left quite a lot of carnage in its wake, breaking trees up to 2 feet in diameter and carrying them some 2000ft down the hill. The apron of Maybird is covered in pine bows, trees and rocks as a result of the avalanche that buried the highway under 10 to 15 feet of snow. 3/7/213/7/2021 - Went up Porter Fork today to get in the upper basin below Raymond. Warm and no wind all day long. And no people.
This area must have slid pretty big during the extreme week. The trees were well buried or gone. Opened up the skiing quite a bit. By 2 pm it was starting to turn. N was solidifying and the other aspects were damp. As we got lower everything was damp until you were in the drainage bottom or skiing out the porter road. PI 3/7/213/7/2021 Travel today was up Tanners slide path in LCC. The weather was clear and warm with not much wind. The snow on the S facing softened up around 10:30-11:00am.
Tanners slide path covered the road in an avalanche two weeks ago and filled in the gully and covered all the vegetation all the way down to highway 210. There was some wet activity that came off both the SE and SW facing but all in all the main line is phat and fairly smooth. By about 1:00pm the snow was getting saturated and slow for downhill travel. This was my first time this year in search of corn and it wasn’t quite ripe but provided good skiing anyway. 3/6/213/7/2021 The wind Travel today was to upper Cardiff from Alta over the pass. Weather was grey early (around 11) and clearing. The big news was the wind which was blowing super hard from all directions on the ridges.
Skiied some due north off the ridge that had good settled powder on them. Even a little E or W changed the conditions so it was more crusty or had less soft snow on it. The wind was a lot less down off the ridge lines. The wind helped with free refills on each run. 3/5/213/5/2021 Travel today was up to White Baldy via Redpine Gulch. The weather was cool in the am and heating up in the afternoon, not much wind, even at 11,000ft.
White Baldy is a high alpine summit at the end of Redpine which is due North facing and fairly steep. There was a couple inches of new snow from yesterday morning covering a mixture of windboard and recrystallized powde on the main face. After that we moved on to the NE facing Lake Shot that ends at Redpine Lake. Both the high N and NE remained dry throughout the day. All other aspects and lower elevations became damp. There was some fairly large wet activity on the mid elevation W facing yesterday. Walking up the Redpine trail in the morning was super icy. I would recommend a whippet and maybe ski crampons if your skis are wide or if your riding a split board. 3/3/213/4/2021 Travel today was up the White Pine drainage in LCC. The weather was clear and warm down in the drainage, but the moderately strong winds kept things cool up high.
Skied one run in the Rock and Roll Chutes off Red Baldy, NW facing, then moved on to the back of the drainage and skied shady North. The snow was fairly variable on the NW, some soft snow intermixed with some wind slab and sastrugi. The North was just boot deep settled powder. All of the lower elevation and the due E and W were crusted in the am and softened in the afternoon. Only instabilities noted were minor roller balling and wet activity. Finally starting to feel good about getting on steeper slopes on the N end of the compass. 3/1/213/2/2021 Travel today was up Redpine from the White Pine trailhead. The weather was clear and cold in the morning, warm in the afternoon with a light breeze.
The snow started heating up midday on E, SE, S and SW. these aspects will be crusted in the am. Skied mostly NW slopes above 10,000ft. the snow remained dry throughout the day. With these temperatures, I would expect the only dry snow to be found on Thursday or Friday will be on high elevation due North. The only activity noted today was wet activity in the form of roller balls and some wet point releases off rocks. It seems that most of the wind slabs have settled out from the storm. If you are enjoying the observations, please consider donating on VenmoMark-White-240 Archives
January 2024
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