Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Dec 18, 2020 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Grey soup. We traveled in low clouds most of the day. Winds were calm at best with light snow on and off.
Snowpack
Around the Rabbit Ears trailhead, the snowpack is super thin and weak. Average depths topped out at 40-50cm (2 feet). The snowpack in these thinner areas lacks a slab and is just the new soft snow sitting on weak facets. As we moved towards Buffalo Pass (Tower weather station) the snowpack deepened to around 100cm and was more supportable to off-trail riding. There was around a foot of recent settled storm snow sitting above a degrading 4 finger slab. Below this mid-pack slab is weak, larger grained facets to the ground. Overall, we did not observe any signs of instability, and this area still needs a more cohesive slab to become dangerous. We also avoided steeper slopes for fear of hitting ground hazards, and stuck to wind-sheltered terrain.
Avalanche
None observed