Steamboat & Flat Tops
Quick reportBrian Gardel · Mar 7, 2026 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Morning was cold with scattered clouds and light west winds. Temps rose in the afternoon to the teens, with few clouds and light/moderate westerly winds. No precipitation. Total new snow from the 3/5-3/6 storm: 11” at 10000ft.
Snowpack
Strong easterly winds overnight formed wind slabs up to 60cm thick NTL on Soda Mtn, and to a lesser degree BTL in the South Fork Soda drainage. Where it wasn’t stripped away by wind, new snow was resting on various old surfaces, i.e. stout windboard (Soda Mtn, N aspect, NTL), a thick 5-7cm melt-freeze crust on solar aspects of Soda Mtn (Soda Mtn, SE>SW, NTL), and a 1.5cm melt-freeze crust in the South Fork of Soda drainage (N, BTL). Noted several small natural Dry Loose avalanches on steep N in the S. Fork of Soda drainage that ran during the storm cycle. I observed no cracking, no collapsing. I dug a handful of pits on N & S aspects NTL, and another BTL on N aspect. One out of six pits, only one had propagating results: Soda Mtn, NTL, S, ECTP12 down 50cm, failing at the new/old interface on a wind slab sitting on a layer of 1-2mm NSF resting on a 7cm MFcr. I was unable to produce propagating results in deeper PWLs in any of my pits.
Avalanche
Several small natural Dry Loose avalanches that occurred during the storm cycle