Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Brian Lazar · Jan 2, 2013 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

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Weather

cloud cover never really lifted. Went from overcats to obscured, but has a couple brief periods of broken skies where the sun poked through for 15 or 20 minute. Pretty Cold, high temps around 13F. Calm westerly wind but not strong enough to move snow. Snow still resting on tree limbs from last storm.

Snowpack

At elevations below 9000 feet, reports of a deeper snowpack in the Zirkels seemed dubious. Things got deeper quickly above 9500 feet even on S aspects. Avg HS around 1m to 1.5m. Likely closer to 2 m on N'erthly aspects near and ATL. Skiing was surprisingly good on supportable midpack slab with 12" recent fluff on top. Covered lots of terrain in snowmobile and saw no signs of recent instability anywhere.