Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Mar 12, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Light south-southwest winds below treeline becoming moderate near treeline. Temperatures were near or above freezing. Broken skies and no new snow.
Snowpack
Below treeline we traveled on west and northwest aspects. Here we found a 2-3cm melt-freeze crust on the surface lying above weaker, softer snow, but by mid-day this crust had softened, and by afternoon it had moistened to the point of easily being able to make snowballs with the top 10cm or so of the snowpack. Any surface hoar we saw in the morning was gone by the afternoon, and we didn't find much evidence of the snowpack surface faceting near treeline (with a pertinent negative being we didn't travel on north or northeast aspects). In a snowpit dug on a northwest aspect at 10,200ft and on an east aspect near treeline, we found the layer that formed prior to the March 2nd-5th storm (the 3/2 layer) to be of most concern. This layer is just a couple centimeters below the widespread dust layer that formed during the early March storm. In our snowpit on a northwest aspect, we didn't see propagation in our extended column tests on this layer (2x ECTN25), but we did see subtle propagation in the snowpit on an east aspect (ECTP30). We found this layer buried about 35cm deep and to be slightly softer than the 10-15cm of snow above it (see snow profiles in media) with some evidence of faceted grains. On the east aspect near treeline, a very thin pencil hard layer (likely an old wind-crust) was immediately above the 3/2 layer.