Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackDan Edmiston · Jan 1, 2013 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Some orographic snow, clouds moving in and out a few hundred meters above ground level. Sky would change from obscured to overcast. Air temps were frigid at neat zero. Fortunately winds were light so standing around in the pit was tolerable.
Snowpack
~100cm depth on SSE facing slope. Major SSE facing slope on North Walton was heavily cut up from skiers, while mellower SSE slope was untouched. Dug pit on 15 degree aspect of the mellow slope to check snowpack development. No recent slides observed anywhere on the tour. SNOW TESTS: CT produced a small 10cm slab at 9 taps that fractured Q1 (SP). Continued tapping on same column produced a subsequent 25cm slab at 29 taps with a Q3 break. Shovel shear on adjacent column produced break at 35cms, so it seems the upper snowpack was area of failure for this pit. No ECT was performed since it was getting pretty cold and I was running out of tea. DENSITY PROFILE: Dug full depth pit. Upper 80cms appeared to increase pretty consistently in density without any major layers being apparent. Measurements are from ground. 108-80cms were some mixed decomposing precip and some wind rounds, mostly about 0.5mm and fist hard. 80-60cms was round grains, 0.5mm and 4 finger hard. 60-26cms mostly 1mm rounds with some faceting occuring, pencil hard. 26-15cms mostly 2mm rounds well on their way to becoming facets. A small 4 finger faceted layer with 3mm crystals from 15-13cm. A 5cm thick melt-freeze layer with some 2mm clustered round grains and some 3mm faceted crystals mixed in, was more firm than pencil but less than knife hard, a fun conglomeration of unfun. In typical fashion, the last 8cm of the snowpack were 3mm depth hoar chains, 4 finger hard. TEMP PROFILE: -14.5C at surface, with subsequent 10cm temps as follows -10C, -9C, -7.7C, -5.3C, -4.6C, -3.1C, -2.7C, -1.6C, -1.5C, -0.5C.