Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg, Mike Cooperstein · Feb 26, 2017 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

Weather

Clear skies for most of the day with a few scattered and high clouds by late afternoon. Wind was moderate at ridgetop with calmer winds below treeline.

Snowpack

The new snow that has fallen since last Thursday is bonded well and shows no signs of instability in non-wind affected terrain... The main layer of concern is buried near-surface facets that are buried 30 to 40 cms deep. In some places these facets sit below a hard wind-packed layer. Tests show that the well-preserved factes under the crust have the potential to propagate a fracture. This is not the case at the moment as the slab is still relatively thin but we will have to monitor this PWL for future loads and the potential for large avalanches...Although wind loading was light today, previous wind loading has created hard slabs of wind-drifted snow in cross-loaded terrain features and directly below ridgetop. We steered clear of these hard slabs and would recommend others doing the same...As for the surface hoar layer that formed on 1/19 that is now buried at least 70cms deep- we did not find it to be prominent. We found what may have been this layer (fragmented surface hoar) on an easterly near treeline slope. The surface hoar was not intact but surprisingly we got hard results in an ECT test, showing that we may not be done with this layer.