Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Mar 2, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Broken skies with moderate southwest winds and strong gusts. Temperatures were near freezing. No new snow.
Snowpack
Touring a couple hundred feet above and below 10,000 feet today, I found the height of snow to range from about 230-240cm on southerly aspects and 270-300cm on northerly aspects. On one open, wind loaded slope below treeline, I measured the snow depth at 415cm. Although it was quite windy, I did not observe much blowing snow. The snow surface on southerly aspects was a 1-2cm crust. On north and east aspects I found mostly wind broken precipitation particles, and isolated areas of 1mm surface hoar crystals and near-surface facets. 25cm to 35cm deep in snowpits dug on east and north aspects respectively, I found the 2/27 layer, which failed with moderate to hard taps on extended column tests but did not propagate (apart from this, extended column tests yielded no results). This layer was very thin (less than 0.5cm) and compromised of a mix of decomposing fragments and maybe faceted grains on an east aspect, and very small surface hoar crystals on a north aspect. Beneath this layer was predominately 1-finger hard rounded grains for another 100cm. Buried 130cm deep on an east aspect I found 8mm surface hoar crystals. In the snowpit on a north aspect I dug 140cm deep and did not find buried surface hoar, but I assume if I dug slightly deeper I would have found the same layer. The snowpack in this area is right-side-up to the depths I dug (100-150cm), and I did not experience any cracking or collapsing during my time in the field.