Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackAnonymous ยท Dec 19, 2014
Weather
AM mostly cloudy, no precip, no wind, T in lower/mid 20s, PM becoming clear skies and sunny with T in mid/upper 20's.
Snowpack
Omni present rain crust (all aspects, up to mountain tops at ~11k), buried under 1-1.5ft of very soft new snow, is extremely supportive; in fact it protects against core shots in this shallow snowpack (HS40-50cm). The crust shows well developed facets below and early stage facets on top. The latter is developing into a serious problem to come with the approaching storm, as demonstrated by a skier triggered 15m SS on a very steep road cut (bedsurface was the rain crust). With another 1ft or more of new snow, especially as the very soft slab settles into 4F, I anticipate high instability possibly releasing on slope angles as low as upper 20's and running faster and longer as one would normally expect.