Steamboat & Flat Tops

Avalanche

CMC AIARE Lvl 1 · Feb 20, 2021 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

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Weather

8200-9000ft, southerly and easterly aspects. Light west winds, minimal snowfall during the day, maybe 1-2 inches max. Most intense snowfall was about S1 (1 cm/hr). Overcast skies all day, temps started fairly comfortable but got a little cooler after lunch.

Snowpack

About 110cms snow on SSE aspects at 8800ft. Snowpack structure is mostly right side up with softer layers being supported by stronger layers beneath. The one glaring exception is the 10-15cms of fist/4 finger hard basal facets under the 1 finger mid-pack slab. SSE aspects had 3 melt-freeze crusts but we only saw movement on the upper-most crust at 20-25cms down from the surface. Got repeated CTM & CTH results failing under that sun crust. ECTN when checking that layer for propagation. Overall the layers seem to be fairly stubborn. Basal facets on our north Routt terrain are starting to be a little more cohesive and aren't quite as weak or reactive as we've seen earlier in the season.

Avalanche

None observed