Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Tim Rowse · Jan 19, 2020 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

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Weather

Overcast, light snow, warm, high 20's.

Snowpack

ICT failed at 20 at 57cm. Clean Shear, not a lot of energy. I couldn't get the column to fail on the facets next to ground. When I pulled the column from behind with the shovel, the rest of the column broke off at the top of the facets and fractured through the remaining snowpack. It wasn't a clean shear, and it was a very weak bond. Makes me feel like the entire snowpack is sitting on a house of cards just waiting for triggers. If the 57cm layer were to fail, it could propagate to ground. In short, pretty sketchy.