Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheDan Edmiston · Nov 22, 2020 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Chilly with light to moderate SW winds at summit. T-shirt weather closer to trailhead. High clouds coming in afternoon with approaching storm but clear skies all morning. Evidence of warm temps this past week since boot tracks were frozen up to about 10400'.
Snowpack
This was a hiking boots/gaiter outing. Southerly and westerly aspects were bare dirt to about 9500 on most peaks in North Routt. Hahns was bare ground on southerly aspects all the way to 10800' summit. Easterly aspects loaded pretty heavily from last weekend's storm, but depths were max of 16-18 inches in drifted spots. Northerly aspects were max of 10" made up of 2" temp/wind crust and 8" of small facetting grains. Ski quality would be very poor on any aspect but there were indeed ski tracks. Adjacent Elkhead Range had much the same story as Hahns. Zirkels were also visible and looked to have better coverage on their southerly/westerly aspects but still had some bare ground on steeper, more sun affected slopes up to about 10200' Couldn't really see northerly or easterly slopes in that range. Overall the old snow surface on easterly slopes is more concerning but the northerlies got that basal facetting to contend with. Pretty dismal snowpack right now.
Avalanche
None seen