My partner and I toured up Cardiff Fork around 6:30am and didn't see any signs of instability until around 8,500ft where we noticed the new snow had not bonded well to the underlying crust. Based on the forecast, which mentioned that new snow had bonded well, we were not anticipating this. The higher we got, the crust/new snow instability was less noticeable. Snowfall rates waivered between S2-S5 and our skin track was mostly filled in by our second lap and winds had tapered off. While breaking trail on our second lap, I noticed bigger cracking extending ~2-3ft (rather than just sluffing out from under your skis) telling me that the storm slab was growing under the rapid new snow loading.

I triggered a short slide on the crust/new snow interface while skiing out around 11:15am. Based on what we had observed throughout the day, I expected to see failures in this rolling micro-terrain, but I was surprised at how connected the soft slab was as it was probably 70-80 feet wide, extending into the trees beyond the red line in the photo. This was a small East/Northeast facing slope around 8,800ft.

By the time we were skiing out on the road around 11:30, there had been tons of little natural slides (observed on N,E, & W aspects) along both sides of the road. My fingers were too frozen to take any pictures, but it was a stark contrast from our tour up earlier that morning. Our skintrack on Cardiff Fork road was completely filled in by the time we were leaving. Fantastic skiing conditions!