Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek, Austin DiVesta · Feb 11, 2023 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Cold morning in Craig with temperatures around -5F warming up to low 20s by noon. Sky coverage remained between Scattered and Broken throughout the day and no wind or snow transport.
Snowpack
The height of snow (HS) below the treeline is 180cm deep in the shallow, southerly portions of the Elkheads and the HS is often exceeding the full length of a 320cm probe on northerly and easterly aspects above 10,000 feet. A thin (<5cm) layer of small (.5mm) rounding facets (FCxr) is present about 80-100cm below the snow surface and is weaker than adjacent layers above and below but shows only non-propagating failures after additional loading steps on extended column tests and the weak basal facets can still be felt with a probe in the bottom 10-20cm of the snowpack. The current snow surface is composed of surface hoar (SH) and near-surface facets (FCsf) on all shady slopes and will likely be the next layer of concern once the current snow surface is buried.
Avalanche
Observed a couple very small slab avalanches below small cornices ridgelines.