Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheDan Edmiston · Feb 24, 2023 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Obscured skies most of the morning. Moderate SSE winds with strong gusts. Quite a lot of snow getting moved around. Skies started clearing around 1pm. Temps in the teens all day.
Snowpack
No pits dug. A few hasty pits showed fairly easy movement of new storm snow about 18 inches down. A few 35 degree test slopes on SE and E aspects had fairly easy triggered woomphs but no shooting cracks made it thru to the surface. Unable to ID the suspect layer that these slopes failed on. Previous obs from north routt suggested some near surface facets from last weekend. I suspect that in a few days the slab could settle/stiffen enough to be problematic. Quite a lot of wind transport even below treeline. As forecast suggested the wind slabs are showing up in unusual spots in the terrain. Snow was giving enough concerning feedback that we bailed low in the terrain.
Avalanche
None triggered, none seen