Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheAnonymous · Feb 24, 2018 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
10 degrees with consistent 30 mile per hour wind. Mostly overcast. North facing aspect, 9700 elevation, approximately 25 degree slope below tree line.
Snowpack
About 6 new inches of snow from overnight storm. We dug a snow pit 4 feet deep on the aspect described above. Noticed a soft layer (4 finger strength) about 95 cm deep . A slab sheared off at this layer during a shovel shear test on a south plane, not spring loaded (Q2 rating). The slab thickness was around 50 cm. The slab also propagated during a compression test after the 7th tap from the elbow. We observed a relatively consistent and strong snow pack below this layer. We did not observe any other propgations below the 95 cm layer.
Avalanche
None.