Steamboat & Flat Tops

Avalanche

CMC AIARE Lvl 1 · Feb 11, 2017 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

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Weather

Temps in high 20's most of the day with a little cooler air entering mid-afternoon as storm exited. Snow was S-1 to S1 most of the day with a few breaks. Sky was overcast to obscured. Rain/snow line was close to valley bottom (6800ft) in the morning as storm moved in.

Snowpack

Snow height ~200cm. Pits dug on East and NW facing pits had 8 similar CTM/CTH results down 50-70cms on a thin facet/crust layer that failed with Q1/sudden planar fracture character. Buried surface hoar was not apparent and didn't show in any tests. Will look for it again on 2/12 Temperature crust from the last few days was obvious under the 10-15cms of new snow. New snow was warm, fairly dense and did not move easily during shovel tilt test. Single ECTX and a non-result on RB test.

Avalanche

Road cuts on Rabbit Ears pass had older wet, loose slides but no new slides were observed.