Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheKreston Rohrig, Jason Konigsberg · Dec 31, 2020 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Mostly grey skies with very mild to non-existent winds. The day started a bit chilly, but was rather nice riding conditions.
Snowpack
The snowpack below 9500' is super thin and weak. We did observe a small avalanche on a steep road cut and some recent signs of cracking along the snow surface. Digging around in these areas, we found a snowpack 70cm deep with a soft slab of recent snow and facets sitting over a degrading crust near the ground. Above the crust was a thin layer of well developed facets and was the likely layer that failed in the small avalanche. Higher in elevation around 10000', the snowpack improved, but was still not great. Depths ranged from 75-90, but the big difference was there is still a mid-pack slab that is hanging in there and helped support the weight of our snowmobiles. The slab is degrading (faceting) and boot pen was usually to the ground with little to no effort. For now, the snowpack is relatively safe, and could only produce an avalanche in very steep terrain. We observed no signs of instability, but all this will change when we get more snow. This weak structure will not support a huge load before collapsing.
Avalanche
We found a small avalanche along the groomed road, possibly triggered by the grooming cat.