Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek Jewel Campbell · Jan 14, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Overcast and snowing fairly hard above 9,000'. Not much wind but it picked up a bit by midafternoon from the west. Temps in the 30's.
Snowpack
Shooting cracks and collapses were observed in every open meadow we snowmobiled into. All of these whumpfs, all the small avalanches, and all snowpack tests were failing on the interface between last weekend's snow and the draught layer of well-developed near-surface facets. The snow from last weekend developed into a more cohesive base to the slab about 10-20cm thick and 1F- on the hand hardness scale while the rest of the slab (about 30-50cm) above this layer was mostly 4F- to F hard.
Avalanche
Many small (D1) avalanches failed naturally and by snow cats and snowmobiles. These avalanches were triggered from the bottom of the slope and sent shooting cracks out up to a few hundred feet. They broke on the old snow interface from last weekend failing on 2mm facets from the dry spell and running on the ground.