Steamboat & Flat Tops

Avalanche

Cody M. Perry ยท Dec 14, 2014

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Weather

Obscured skies with moderate winds out of the West. Precip S1/S2 with temps in the upper 20's

Snowpack

Hahn's Peak Area. 46cm snowpack with 10-12cm of new storm snow on an East facing slope of 30 degrees at 9000ft. This new snow has fallen on a substantial crust of 3 to 4cm's thick. The crust is most prominent on any slope exposed to the sky, less so in the trees. The new storm snow is small and stacked dense (.5mm), but a knife or pen is needed to bust the crust its sitting on. Under the crust large crystals are fused or growing (3mm) that quickly transition downward to smaller facets and decomposing grains (1mm). In this area and elevation there has not been evidence of the deeper burried persistent layer that is present in higher elevations of the Park Range and Flattops. Shooting cracks traversing slopes showed a slabby behavior. Wind loads were especially sensitive. We observed ridgetop loading today with some touchy new slabs. It was difficult digging in the snow today, hard to not effect the crust in a column you wanted to test, its very robust and connected.

Avalanche

None seen.