Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheMax Strotbeck · Dec 18, 2023 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Near freezing air temperatures with moderate southwest winds. Broken skies and no new snow.
Snowpack
Height of snow in this northern area of the Park Range was less than what's been observed further south in the range, with HS varying from 35cm on a southeast aspect at 8800ft to 71cm on a north-northeast aspect at 9250ft. Surface hoar was widespread in less forested terrain, with the largest on north aspects about 3cm in size. I did not find the surface hoar layer buried earlier in December which was observed on Buffalo and Rabbit Ears Pass in my snow pits dug today on north-northeast, east, and southeast aspects. In the pit dug on an east aspect, I did not find a persistent weak layer, as the October and November snow likely melted entirely before the stormy start to December, and had no propagating results in an extended column test. In my pit dug on a north-northeast aspect, an extended column test propagated with hard taps on the basal facets (ECTP23). The slab was four finger to pencil hard on the hand hardness scale. The upper snowpack is faceting to a degree but perhaps less faceted than expected given the dry spell.
Avalanche
I did not observe any avalanches.