Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheEric Deering · Dec 24, 2013
Weather
Snowing hard (S2-S5), W-SW winds to 20+ 9400' on N-NE aspect
Snowpack
Same aspect, Elev. and location as above. About 60 cm HN. F to 4F. Then another 15cm to the buried SH layer. A good deal of wind has made the upper pack quite stiff and punchy. On approach, we saw very little cracking and collapsing. Pits dug on similar aspects yielded Moderate to Hard CT and ECT results on the new snow/old snow interface.
Avalanche
N-NE slope at 9400'. 30-36° SS ASr R3-4 D2.5 When we approached the path from above we got a large collapse and saw that the slope was sliding. Initial slide was approx. 100 yards wide and ran 300' vertical. Half the path failed at the new/old snow interface (60cm down), the other half failed on the SH layer at about 75cm down. Other portions of the path released remotely as we moved along the ridge.