Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheKreston Rohrig, Austin Divesta · Jan 2, 2025 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Overcast with low visibility, but otherwise calm.
Snowpack
Only 5cm of new snow fell last night, adding to the 35cm of total storm snow from the past few days. Most notable was a stout ice crust from a widespread rain event before the storms. This was easily felt while traveling in all aspects and terrain features. Below the crust was a faceting mid-pack slab and 40cm of facets at the bottom of the snowpack. Stability results were a mixed bag: one propagating result in the basal facets and one non-propagating. We dug in a slightly more wind-drifted feature to assess denser slab formation but could not reach any higher, ridgeline terrain.
Avalanche
The avalanches we saw were old. We talked with the groomer doing trail maintenance, who said he triggered the road cut a few days back with his snow cat.