Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg, Jeff Davis · Nov 21, 2017 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

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Weather

We were in sheltered terrain and observed light wind loading. Loading at higher, more exposed locations would be enough to contribute to small wind slabs.

Snowpack

We traveled on northerly and east slopes around 10k feet (near treeline). No obvious signs of instability were observed today. The snowpack around Rabbit Ears Pass is about 2 feet in depth. The snowpack structure includes two distinct weak layers. There is a thin layer of facets near the ground and a layer of facets below Friday night's storm snow. Stability tests indicated the layer of most concern to be the upper most layer with propagation observed in several ECTs. Overall the snowpack structure is much better than surrounding zones as it is a little deeper with faceted layers showing some signs of strength. It would still be possible to trigger an avalanche on the upper most facet layer especially on a slope, such as northeast and east, that was wind-loaded today.