On Tuesday, skies were mainly clear with a few high clouds ahead of the upcoming pacific storm. I was tired after Monday so I started late with the objective of skiing something off Superior.
After ascending the pole line route to Cardiff Pass, I had to negotiate the tricky ridge towards Little Superior. It was a bit icy in places and not particularly nice.
By the first notch at 10,300 enough was enough. I decided to check out a ridge back down to the road, 2,000 feet below. From here there was a nice view of Snowbird.
You could also see the Pfeiff and yesterday's destinations - Maybird and Hogum
I ran into a UDOT forecaster, out for a walk with a couple of friends and his dog
We dug a pit - aspect SE, elevation 10,200, slope angle 40 degrees. The new snow had settled to 10cm and total snow depth was 220cm. There was an interesting sun-crust below the new snow with a thin layer of facets below that. This failed Q1 on CT11 - possibly a concern for the upcoming storm. There was a second failure (on Graupel?) 25cm below the surface, Q2 on CT15. The third failure, Q2/3, on CT24 was on facets at 100cm below the surface.
The way down was variable. Steeper and more S facing aspects were more crusted, shallower E facing aspects were less so with 3-4" of powder. So the closer to the road, the better it was.
The route skied was the ridge a couple back from the treed one in the foreground.
