Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Jan 9, 2018 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

Weather

Very warm with broken skies and light winds near to below treeline.

Snowpack

Traveled from about 9k ft to 10,500 ft on north to east-facing slopes. I experienced numerous collapses and shooting cracks. It was somewhat hard to initiate these collapses and affect the weak layer as the slab above the weak layer of concern is from fist to pencil-hard. The weak layer of concern is a fist-hard layer of 1mm facets that formed during the December dry spell. Propagation test corroborated that it is hard to initiate a crack in the weak layer, but if started, the crack will propagate. All ECTs propagated with medium to hard taps and PST results were 30/100 END. The weak layer distribution is widespread from north through east to southeast. I did not find any areas without this weak layer.---New snow on Wednesday will change the sensitivity and it will be easier to trigger avalanches that break 2 to 4 feet deep if upper-end fx amounts verify.