Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheAnonymous · Apr 8, 2018 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Increasing temperatures, Blowing snow, Strong winds, Overcast. Around the 9,500ft mark, North-east aspect. Early afternoon, increasing winds and temperatures. Wind was blowing in from the Southwest.
Snowpack
Evidence of instability on ALL convex rollers. Fracture 4-12" inch crown lines, propagating violently across slopes that sustain 28-42 degrees. Cracking was inevitable. Bed surface layer with smaller angulated grains on top, with a heavy 8-12"inch storm slab on top. Affected by wind, rain, and warming temperatures. "Glass-like" fractures with loose wet, slide dynamics.
Avalanche
Skier Triggered. Skier indented. Crown line broke between two interfaces { 2-3" layers} with a "glass-like" fracture dynamic at the head of the crown.The slide then violently propagated across, west to east, along the entire ridge-line of the boulder (a curtain effect). Quickly metamorphosing into a loose wet slide dynamic near the tail-end (the funnel effect.) It was two different avalanches in one.