Steamboat & Flat Tops

Temperatures above freezing with light to moderate southwest winds but no blowing snow. Broken skies. No new snow.

Snow surfaces were moist on the treed, east facing slopes that I ascended in the morning. Surfaces cooled in the open areas and were supportable to ski travel, but removing my ski I plunged mid-thigh deep in my boot, almost to the ground. On a low elevation east-facing slope, I found a mostly faceted snowpack that was moist throughout. Above 9,000 feet I dug snowpits on east and north-facing slopes. Here, on the surface I found 10cm of moist snow above a thin rain crust that formed on the 24th. Beneath this was a 35-40cm slab of mostly 4-finger and 1-finger rounded, moist grains. This slab rested atop weaker faceted snow, which was more concerning in the north-facing snowpit where it seemed water had not percolated to this layer. In the snowpits on north and east slopes, I saw propagation in extended column tests with 11 taps and 18 taps respectively. In the north-facing snowpit, the block slid clean off the column without aid.