Steamboat & Flat Tops

Clear skies with light west winds. Temperatures around 60 degrees Fahrenheit at 10,000 feet. No new snow.

While the ambient air temperature remained above freezing last night on Rabbit Ears Pass, snow surfaces were firm in the morning as clear skies overnight allowed the surface and near-surface snow to shed its heat. However, southerly slopes heated up quickly with the sun, and prior water penetration over the last couple days weakened the bonds between grains. Before noon, boot penetration was to about my waist on a southeast facing slope at 10,500 feet, where the height of snow was just over a meter. In a snowpit on this aspect and at this elevation, recent meltwater had made it to the ground, and the snowpack was nearly isothermic. The recent meltwater had also degraded the 50-60cm slab. On a NNW slope around 9,400 feet, the snowpack was drier and slab not as weak. Boot penetration was only about 10cm. The height of snow was closer to a meter-and-a-half. The upper third was moist and mostly rounded, while the lower two-thirds was dry with a mix of rounds and facets. In a snowpit dug on an east facing slope at 10,000 feet, I found a structure that was an intermediate of the two prior pits. The height of snow was 130cm, and the upper 50cm was wet but the snow progressively became drier towards the ground. In both the north and east facing snowpits, I found an 80cm slab above weaker snow, but this weaker snow was rounding, and about 1-finger hard on the hand hardness scale.