Steamboat & Flat Tops

Scattered skies. Light southwest winds below treeline turning to moderate with strong gusts at ridgeline, though no snow transport observed. While temperatures were well above freezing below treeline, the wind kept it cool on the saddle and ridge. No new snow.

The snowpack is still thin on Hahn’s Peak, around 50-80cm on northwest through north through east aspects observed. The new snow was dense. As I skinned my average ski penetration was only 5cm. The skiing was surfy above 10,000 feet when descending early afternoon, but below about 9,700 feet the new snow was sticky and moist enough to make a snowball. The old surface, now covered by 8-15cm of snow from Saturday, is a thin, 1mm ice lens (it is slightly thicker at 2mm on east aspects at ridgeline). This layer is less robust and only a single layer as opposed to the dual and more robust crust that has been observed on Buffalo Pass. I did not observe much faceting around this crust. In a snowpit dug on a northeast aspect, I did see a clean quality 1 shear in a compression test on decomposing fragments atop this crust with moderate taps, but saw no results of concern on this layer or anywhere in the snowpack in an extended column test.