Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheBrian Lundstedt ยท Jan 18, 2016
Weather
Snowing, Moderate winds seemed to be aloft but low viz. and heavy forest made speed est. impossible. New snow in forecast seems to have been under estimated in this storm, probably about 36" actual but storm had heavy winds so very difficult to gauge accurately. Test slopes were on North and East aspects below tree line.
Snowpack
E aspect: Informal test resulted in sudden failure on buried surface hoar located at bottom of storm slab. This was super informal but a quick check resulted in sudden collapse after 3 wrist taps at SH and after 3 elbow hits secondary failure in depth hoar. Bulletin matched pretty close in talking about a step down that would be harder to trigger N aspect: Somewhat touchy results while test sloping with sled, trenching low consequence terrain near formal trail, roughly 35 deg slope, Large slab blocks formed but were supported from moving much. These blocks consisted of storm slab mostly it appeared.
Avalanche
None noted, but with low viz and great snow we did not need to travel too close to avy terrain after seeing reactive snow in test slopes