Cardiff11/10/2021 Went to Cardiac Ridge because it snowed and Alta’s a little hectic when it snows. There was 8 to 10 inches of new snow, mostly graupel. As soon as we got off the south facing and dropped into the north facing the collapses started. Got some small ones at first then some big loud booming ones up high on Cardiac Ridge. At first
I wasn’t sure where in the snow pack the collapses were coming from but after digging a quick pit the answer was revealed. The storm came in all graupel at first then the last 4 to 5 inches of snow came in denser and created a density inversion in the storm snow. The 5 inches of dense snow was acting as a soft slab. The wind might have slabbed it a bit as well and the graupel underneath was the weak layer. There’s no way in hell I’d walk up Cardiac Ridge getting large collapses unless I was positive it was in the new snow and shallow and totally manageable. I would suspect these instabilities to settle out but I’d be cautious of wind slabs tomorrow, it was blowing pretty good on our exit.
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