Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheAustin DiVesta Max Strobeck · Jan 4, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
It was a surprisingly warm and cloudy day with snow flurries again.
Snowpack
The snow levels slowly increased from the trailhead, but it was still not enough to even think about going off trail for fear of hitting sharks. We dug a snowpit on north-facing slopes at 9900 ft and found non-propagating results on Extended Column Tests even at the basal layer. What surprised us was a crust/facet combination down 10-20 cm from the surface. It was not like a traditional melt-freeze crust, but both crusts had clear ice in them. While skinning, our skis penetrated the bottom crust. This crust is also where we would get localized cracking around shallow spots like downed logs or rocks. As we moved up in elevation to our heights around 10,600 ft, we found this crust in all aspects. We found a similar structure with non-propagation test results in another pit around 10,000 ft on a northeast aspect.
Avalanche
We saw a couple of old avalanches that most likely ran around Christmas time, and we triggered a couple of small Loose Dry avalanches.