Steamboat & Flat Tops

Snowpack

Cody M. Perry · Dec 22, 2013 · Steamboat & Flat Tops

Weather

Snowing S2 at the house, snowing S2 at the trailhead in North Routt. Obscured skis and little winds with some moderate gusts. Mostly out of the west. -5 to -8c all day. Consistent snow S2+ all day. Nice calm consistent day. Snowing. Ridge line winds were a little still light but a bit more pronounced of course.

Snowpack

Stunning amount of new, dry, light snow in North Routt. New storm snow sits right on top of fairly defined old snow interface. Just below this old snow interface is another established older crust with a loose undertone of facets variable states of depth, size and presence depending on aspect. Quick profile (E face, 9100ft, 35degree average slope angle). showed us a height of snow at 85cm. New Storm snow down to 50cm. A crust of pencil hardness 2cm in thickness growing softer till 40cm in depth. 2mm faceted grains pulled from in here. Another pencil crust at 40cm down, 2cm thick with similar facets becoming slightly larger the closer we get to the ground. Repeated CT tests didn't show impressive reactions in these buried weak layers or the old snow/new snow interface. Repeated CT-M with resistant to progressive reactions. I noted that the old snow layer below this load is quite defined.