Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheAnonymous · Jan 30, 2020 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Grey Bird weather with light to moderate snowfall throughout the day. During the afternoon, we noticed the winds picked up and started to drift snow near treeline (poor visibility though). Our day was spent below treeline.
Snowpack
Very similar snowpack to what we observed the day prior with an average snow height around 180cm. From the bottom up, the snow was pencil strong until the top 35 centimeters where it progressed to finger and fist due to recent snowfall. We dug a profile on a southeast-facing slope at approximately 9500ft. A compression test revealed thin/weak layer at approximately 40cm deep (see photo). With multiple tests, we could not get an ECT to propagate on this layer.
Avalanche
We saw a few, small, natural loose/dry avalanches on slopes steeper than 40 degrees that gouged down only the the most recent layer of fresh snow, about 6 inches deep.