Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Dec 8, 2024 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Partly cloudy skies and light winds from the southwest with the occasional gust. Temperatures were near freezing. No new snow.
Snowpack
The height of snow on north and northeast facing slopes I observed was about 80cm. On the surface of the snow were 8-20mm surface hoar crystals with about 35cm of fist to four-finger hardness faceted snow beneath. There was a more cohesive layer (one finger hardness) below this, before the snowpack became softer and more faceted towards the bottom. West and south facing slopes were more supportable as I traveled on them than northerly aspects. I found the height of snow to be 65cm in one snow pit on a west aspect, and 40-45cm on southerlies (though some steeper southerlies held less snow than this). West aspects held a very thin (half-centimeter) crust that I did not feel while skiing down later in the day, while the surface crust on south aspects was 2-3cm. There is weak snow in the upper snowpack on these aspects but not near to the degree of what I found on the northerly slopes.