Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Mar 23, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Temperatures were above freezing with moderate southwest winds. Skies were broken to overcast. There were short periods of very light snowfall but did not amount to any accumulation.
Snowpack
Below treeline, the snow surface and upper snowpack consisted of melt forms and rounded grains. The surface was fairly firm in the morning, but by afternoon the upper snowpack had become moistened to the point of it being difficult to make a turn downhill skiing. Near treeline, the surface consisted mostly of wind broken decomposing fragments. Here, moderate southwest winds kept the snow surface firm all day, and fully weighting one ski I could not penetrate through the surface. The east wind event, warmer temperatures and little to no snow we've had recently have led to a very textured surface and made for quite poor skiing. In the snowpits I dug on northerly aspects near treeline (which were both wind-effected), I found a pencil to 1-finger hard slab sitting atop basal facets and depth hoar in a shallower area, and in the other deeper area, I found the same hard slab, but did not dig deep enough to see what the snow looked like below. In both snowpits, this slab was close to 100cm. As expected, extended column tests did not produce propagating results.