Steamboat & Flat Tops

Avalanche

J. Messina ยท Dec 25, 2013

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Weather

Wx was clear, sunny, calm. Virtually no wind. Temps were cold, estimated in low 20s but not measured. Aspect was NNE at about 9600'. Lots of new snow in past couple days, ski area reporting over 20" storm total. Some graupel fell on Tuesday and was visible in upper pack.

Snowpack

Same location, NNE aspect, about 9600' elevation. Lower pack very consolidated. Crust layer mid-pack had facets growing beneath it making for some easy shears on CT and ECT tests. Buried surface hoar layer closer to the surface made for even easier test results. Whumpfing did occur as we began descent, before making our obs. Test results in upper buried surface hoar layer were CT2 Q2 (RP) and ECTPV Q1 (SP). Needless to say, we did not ski anything remotely steep and were surprised to not see any avalanche activity. After the top layer released, we continued our tests and got the following results below the crust layer: CT4 Q1 (SP), ECTP3 Q1 (SP).

Avalanche

No avalanches were observed, nor was any avalanche activity.