Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Cody M Perry · Jan 10, 2013 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

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Weather

Clear open sky's with no wind. Air temp was -1 and stayed consistent for our tour. Very cold calm nights we're evidenced by surface hoar in open areas.

Snowpack

On this day the snowpack was ideal for the backcountry skier. On a 110cm deep pack the top 40cm or so was soft small facets. The snowpacks density begins to firm up continuing toward the base until 25cm from ground a weak layer persists. This weak layer consists of grains that are fairly advanced facets 2mm to 3mm in grain size. Temps @ ground level were 0c and drop to -1c @25cm. Grain size drops at this depth as well to .5mm. This is the persistent weak layer interface and appears, in my opinion, to show trends of progressive healing. From Ground to surface no significant temp gradient appeared. From 25cm up to 35cm the snow becomes gradually denser. Grains also become smaller facets with some rounding evident around 40cm and 50cm. From 50cm in depth up to 75cm the snow slowly becomes softer until a creamy cool whip like top. From ground to the height of snow @110cm the pack showed a cooling trend towards the atmosphere of 5 degrees c.