Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Mar 23, 2025 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Broken skies and light southwest winds. Temperatures rose to above freezing by mid-day. No new snow.
Snowpack
I found 1-3 inches of new snow from yesterday’s storm. The strong west winds accompanied by the storm had drifted snow to the leeside of ridges I traveled upon, up to a foot in isolated spots on north through east through southeast aspects, but I was unable to trigger any wind slab avalanches with ski cuts on test slopes or by kicking off cornices. I didn’t see any areas with enough drifted snow to cause concern that there could be a large avalanche. Digging a snowpit on an east-southeast facing slope, I found a snowpack consisting of moist, rounded layers from recent storms, separated by crusts of varying thicknesses. Unsurprisingly, an extended column test did not result in propagation, only some cracking on the old snow surface. Skiing down mid-day, surfaces were moist on east aspects. Taking my ski off and stepping my boot into this snow, I sank through the snowpack until I hit a 5-6cm thick crust a bit over 20cm down, which likely developed during the dry-spell over the second week of March.