Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Dec 21, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Clear with light winds from the southwest. Temperatures rose from the low-teens to above freezing. No new snow.
Snowpack
The snowpack averages around a meter deep on Walton Peak, less on southerlies and more on northerlies. I found the December drought layer buried 20-30cm deep, with generally fist to four-finger hard snow above it and a firming Thanksgiving mid-pack slab below. Extended column tests propagated on the December drought weak layer in snow pits on north and east aspects (ECTP12 and ECTP18 respectively) on 6-12mm surface hoar grains. I did not see propagation (ECTN21) with the same test on a southeast aspect on this layer (a faceting melt-freeze crust). On the surface, I found surface hoar on northerly aspects. In low angle meadows, the top couple centimeters of the snow was faceting. On east and southeast aspects, I observed near-surface facets that had formed, but just beneath the snow was not faceting much or at all.