Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheMax Strotbeck · Feb 19, 2025 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Skies were obscured and snowfall was light or very light until about 1:30pm when it stopped snowing, though skies stayed overcast. Winds were calm and the temperature was around 20 degrees.
Snowpack
I found height of snow since the first week of February to be over 70cm on south aspects and 95cm on north aspects, with the bulk of that snow falling within the last week. Overall, height of snow was 150-215cm. This newer snow is right-side-up, and I did not see any propagation occur in extended column tests within the storm snow. Near the ridgeline where the snowpack was shallower, I did see propagation occur with moderate taps on a layer of well-developed facets that was buried 60-70cm below the surface. However, I could not find this layer elsewhere and assume it was isolated to this near ridgeline area.
Avalanche
I saw two avalanches from CR129 in an area locally known as The Fingers. Both were on east aspects around 8500’. One ran naturally and failed within a layer of the storm snow, likely sometime yesterday. The other avalanche occurred on a wind loaded slope and also failed within a layer of the storm snow, but I could not discern what triggered it and it occurred sometime prior to yesterday during this recent storm cycle.