Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheMax Strotbeck · Dec 4, 2023 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Mostly overcast or obscured skies, with rare glimpses of sun at times. Temps were in the mid-20s. Light to moderate wind from the SW. No new snow during my time in the field in the afternoon.
Snowpack
I toured in an area BTL between 9600 to 9900 feet. The depth of the snowpack did not range much, about 100cm on south aspects and 120-125cm on north aspects. The surface snow was graupel. The snow was quite supportable with skis, as my skis only sank 10-15cm as I traversed much of the terrain. The same cannot be said without skis, as my boots plunged all the way through the new storm snow. I noted many deep, crevasse-like cracks, mostly on convexities on north facing terrain, and shooting cracks on north and west facing terrain. I experienced intermittent whumpfing and collapsing throughout the day, a couple of which were thunderous. I dug into the snow on a moderately-treed 23 degree south facing slope in this area. This pit showed a stout storm slab, 90cm of 4F and 1F hand hardness throughout sitting on 2mm facets. My ECT propagated with moderately hard taps at the interface of the faceted snow and storm snow (ECTP17 @ 26cm).
Avalanche
I saw two natural avalanches from a distance. One on north facing terrain and one on south facing terrain, both around 9,400ft.