Steamboat & Flat Tops
Avalanchealex pashley · Dec 26, 2017 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
partly cloudy with in and out sun. scattered snow showers on way out this afternoon.
Snowpack
Dug a quick Hasty Pit on an Eastern Facing Slope right around 9300 feet of elevation. - Snow Depth: 75cm - Storm Snow / Slab: 45cm Right off the bat you could feel a layer in snow, just on the mellow approach up with your poles. Upon digging a pit, there was 75cm total snow. A distinct layer could be seen about 45cm deep, that layer was about 25cm of sugary facets. which was laying on top of about 10-15cm of denser snow laying on the ground. Test Results: ECT9, ICT7
Avalanche
East, south east face of the Gem. Elevation of crown was right around 9600. Crown looked to be about 25cm which slid and then stepped down to that denser 10-15cm just above the ground. Slide was close to 100m in width with the toe of the slide coming to a rest on a bench just above some trees, slide ran about 150-200m. There were two tracks that were above the crown, but I know the 2 guys that were out there on the 24th and nothing happened while they were there. My guess is that this went naturally late on the 24th or early on the 25th as the tracks were almost totally filled in. After digging a pit at lower elevation we decided to walk up towards the toe of the slide and heard some distinct Whomping... No shooting tracks though.