Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Nov 27, 2022 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Overcast and lightly snowing, later opening up to broken skies. Air temp was -9 Celsius at 2:30pm at 10,000ft. Winds were moderate.
Snowpack
Checked snow depth various times while traveling uphill. Depth at 9,425ft on a south facing but very low angle slope (<10 degrees) was 48cm. Depth at 9,600ft on a WNW facing slope was 63cm. A hand shear test here resulted with a failure on the rain crust from early November. Depth at 9,900ft on a WNW facing slope was 80cm. The snowpack at this aspect/elevation was mostly faceted. Upon taking skis off I sank all the way to, and at times through, the rain crust. The rain crust layer from the early November storm was 44cm from the ground. The facets immediately above this layer failed at CT24. Aside from the faceted snow towards the surface sluffing, the snowpack was unreactive when moving across steeper test slopes.