Steamboat & Flat Tops
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Feb 2, 2023 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
The day started off cold but quickly warmed up nicely to a beautiful bluebird day. Winds were light to moderate out of the northwest, contributing to a little bit of snow being transported onto southeast-facing slopes.
Snowpack
Below treeline held more snow than I anticipated. I found pleasant travel, for the most part, by not crawling over the dead and down, which dominated this portion of the forest. North-facing slopes below treeline held approximately 150-160cm of snow, while south-facing slopes had 120-140cm. A couple of quick hand pits revealed 50-70cm of fresh snow that was Fist hard, with a mid-pack ranging from 4 Finger to Pencil hard, then the very bottom was entirely faceted. I did note large surface hoar crystals (5mm-10mm) in much of the below treeline elevation band, but the winds helped knock most of them down. This is something to watch out for in more sheltered areas that are not affected by the winds and sun as easily. This surface hoar disappeared around as I moved into the upper elevations. Near treeline, I found snow heights of 130-200cm, particularly in wind-loaded areas. Snow surfaces at the upper elevations varied greatly from soft snow to very hard (Pencil) without any ski penetration. I dug a pit on a south-east facing slope. The upper snowpack 70cm of this pit was capped with breakable stiff (Pencil) wind-slab on top of recent snow that was very soft (Fist). Where I thought there would be propagation in the upper snowpack, I did not find any with an Extended Column Test. However, I was able to get propagation down 95cm from the ground (ECTP15@95cm) on a layer of facets just above the mid-pack. The mid-pack had several different wind slabs in varying states decomposing, but this all sits on a crust/facet combination around 60cm from the ground. This will be something to watch to see if that crust starts to decompose or if it will help drive some of the faceting in the layers above and below. I found facets and depth hoar from 30cm to the ground, but they seemed to gain some strength as they ranged from Pencil to 4 Finger. On another note, the alpine was very much wind-hammered. Due to where Parkview sits at the mouth of North Park, most of the northerly-facing slopes have very little snow, while the east through south-facing slopes hold the most snow. On the ridgetop, you could see the bare ground on the north side of the ridge, but on the southerly slopes, there was 150+ cm of snow. Driving up Highway 125 I noticed a lot of small avalanches on most east through southeast and west-facing slopes than I did around the steeper portions of Parkview Moutain. While traveling throughout the day, I did not notice any other red flags like cracking or collapsing.
Avalanche
One small avalanche on the west ridge of Parkview