Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheRyan Lewthwaite Kreston Rohrig · Dec 4, 2019 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
A mostly cloudy afternoon with a calm breeze and 29F. For a few moments we observed light snow falling.
Snowpack
The top of the snow was covered with fairly large surface hoar 3-4mm. Rime was noted in trees and on the snow surface. The upper 25cm of the snowpack was recent snow with increasing density as you gain depth. A layer of buried surface hoar was observed below the latest precipitation. The very apparent melt-freeze ice layer 40cm deep has weak facets above and below it. This is the primary problem with the snowpack for this area. Above the ice layer failures are repeatable in snowpack tests with moderate forces applied. Below this knife hard layer, persistent facet grains from an early season storm are weak and lingering.
Avalanche
NO avalanches observed