Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Dec 2, 2025 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Mostly obscured skies with temperatures in the low to mid-teens. Light south winds and intermittent very light snowfall leading to trace accumulation.
Snowpack
On west through north through east facing slopes, I found the height of snow to be 25-40cm. The snowpack was divided into two distinct layers- basal facets that developed prior to Thanksgiving (with some aspects having a thin crust near the ground), and the new snow that fell after the holiday. In snowpits dug in sheltered terrain, the new snow made up a bit over half of the total height of snow, and the older faceted snow a bit under half of the total height of snow. The new snow was the same hardness on the hand hardness scale (fist hard) as the basal layer or a half-step harder than the basal layer. The deepest height of snow I found was on a leeward north-northeast facing slope near ridgeline. Here nearly 50cm of denser new, wind-drifted snow rested atop 20cm of softer faceted snow. Walking in this area I experienced minor cracks shooting from the tips of my skis, and an extended column test resulted in propagation on the 11th tap at the new/old snow interface (ECTP11 @23cm). However, these areas of wind drifted snow were not well connected, and I did not experience signs of instability walking along similar wind-drifted slopes.