Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheMax Strotbeck · Feb 2, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
The morning started with overcast skies which became broken by early afternoon. Winds were light from the south. Temperatures rose to above freezing. No new snow.
Snowpack
The height of snow on Baker Mountain is about a meter deep, with southerly aspects closer to 80cm and northerly aspects around 120cm. I found the deepest snowpack to be a previously wind-loaded east aspect near ridge line at 140cm. Surface hoar was widespread where there was no tree cover, up to 15mm on northerly aspects and as small as 3mm on southerly aspects. As I was skiing back to my car mid-afternoon, the surface hoar on southerlies was still present, though I wouldn't be surprised if the warm temperatures and opening skies may have destroyed some of it later in the day. Beneath the surface hoar, I found either fist hard snow (down 10-15cm) or 2-4cm melt-freeze crusts, depending on aspect. By afternoon, this snow had become moist and I could make snowballs with it. I found the mid-pack slab to be 40-60cm and generally 1 finger to pencil hard on the hand hardness scale. The faceted basal layer ranged from 30-60cm and was mostly 1 finger in hardness. I experienced no obvious signs of instability today, such as collapsing or cracking. An extended column test on a south aspect did not propagate, but the same test on northeast and east aspects did propagate with hard taps (ECTP28). On the northeast aspect, the column failed and propagated in weak snow nearly at the ground. On the east aspect, the column failed and propagated within the facets that formed during the post-Christmas drought.
Avalanche
I did not observe any recent avalanches.