Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Feb 24, 2025 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Moderate west-southwest winds to start the day, but turned calm to light from the west mid-morning as precipitation intensity increased. Skies were overcast all day and obscured at times. Temperatures were near-freezing around 10,000 feet, and above freezing closer to the base area of the resort where we were getting lightly drizzled upon mid-afternoon. There was a short period of moderate snowfall around noon, but was otherwise very light to light snowfall the rest of the day. 2-3cm total accumulation during our time in the field.
Snowpack
Probing various aspects today between 9,200-10,000 feet I found a deep snowpack, from 190cm on south aspects to 285cm on north aspects. There was a couple centimeters of new snow from today on the surface. On southerly aspects, there was a 3cm knife hard crust below this new snow that was supportable to ski travel. Below this crust was storm snow that had fallen from 2/11-2/21, followed by another crust buried 65-85cm deep. Another series of old snow and crusts were below, and in total I found 70-100cm of settled snow on southeast and south aspects since February 7th. On a north aspect, I found 116cm of right-side-up snow since February 7th. The snowpack structure here was good. Finding an isolated area with a thinner slab above a faceting crust layer on southeast or east aspects that developed earlier in February would be my greatest concern.