Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck · Nov 26, 2023 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Toured from 1 to 4PM. Scattered to broken skies, light westerly winds, low 20s Fahrenheit, and no new snow.
Snowpack
I probed around a bit throughout the day and found height of snow ranging from about 20cm on a low angle SE facing slope at 9400ft to 30cm on a similarly angled NW facing slope at 8800ft, and finally 40cm on a low angle WNW facing slope at 9650ft where I dug my pit. This pit showed a poor structure, with very low-density new snow (F-) that fell over the Thanksgiving break, a thin slab (4F) of mostly faceted snow in the middle, and a mix of fist hard larger facets and depth hoar at the bottom. A Shovel Tilt Test and Compression Test resulted in irregular breaks around the interface of the thin slab and basal facets, and an ECT showed non-propagating results. Walking around in boots I sank all the way through the snowpack to the grass and rocks beneath.