Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheDan Edmiston ยท Jan 30, 2016
Weather
Warm start to the day, temps dropped slightly as storm hit @ 1pm. Strong west winds prior to front with moderate snow transport. Cloud ceiling dropped to right around 8700ft and precip rates S1-S2 with front passage.
Snowpack
3-4" new snow came in warm on top of some crusts from early week warm spell. Wind affect and warm snow made for fairly cohesive storm slab. Moderate amount of wind transport due to strong west winds. Stuck to skiing the trees so didn't find much instability, but it is easy to imagine increasing instability out of bounds with the current weather. Under storm snow, the south to west slopes had a minor crust built up from a few sunny spells mid-week, north-ish slopes still held cold snow.
Avalanche
None observed