Steamboat & Flat Tops

Predominately moderate west winds, but nearing the summit felt calm or light from the northeast. Overcast skies that became obscured around 10,000 feet. Temperatures were near freezing. No new snow.

The new snow was 4-finger hard on the hand hardness scale and water-laden enough to make a snowball. Ski penetration was 10cm, and the skiing was surfy and fast. This new snow rested above decomposing fragments on shaded slopes, and a thin, pencil hard crust on solar aspects. The lack of positive feedback walking around the terrain, traversing steep test slopes, and no propagation in extended column tests indicated the storm snow was bonding well to the old surface. Beneath 30-40cm of rounds and rounding facets in the mid-pack is a weaker, faceted layer. This is buried 60-80cm, and in an extended column test I experienced a fracture on this layer with hard taps on a southeast aspect. This is the persistent weak layer I’d be most concerned about here, though with how deep it is buried and strengthening snow above it, it seems unlikely to see an avalanche initiate on this layer.