Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Joe Messina · Mar 29, 2016 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

View on map

Weather

Cloudy but warm. Wind was calm and no precip early in the tour, but wind picked up a little and very light snow fell towards the end of the tour. Temperatures hit low 50s at Steamboat Lake State Park CAIC weather station. Temp taken from this wx station.

Snowpack

See snowpit profile. HS= 175 cm. Strong snowpack with little in the way of persistent weak layers. Anything resembling a facet was well on its way to being rounded. Several crust layers in top half meter of snowpack (see photo) but no facet growth around these crusts, nor was there any reaction in snowpit tests. Entire snowpack was moist.