Steamboat & Flat Tops

Light northwest winds with few clouds. Temperatures in the mid-teens. No new snow and no blowing snow.

The height of snow on south aspects was 40-50cm, with a lot of exposed vegetation and deadfall. The snowpack on these solar aspects is a mix of crusts and faceting snow that was previously moist. The surface crust was 2-3cm, intermittently breakable, and tough to ski. On northerly aspects, the height of snow was 85-110cm. The uppermost 10-20cm was faceting, though the grains were fairly small. I only saw isolated evidence of small surface hoar crystals on the surface. Deeper in the snowpack, about halfway down, I found the ice layer formed by a December rain event that I identified last month during my visit here, still intact. There were small, faceted grains immediately above this layer, and below it. Still, even with this structure, an extended column test did not fracture at all. I did see a fracture on the facets above the crust in a compression test, but not until my 30th tap from the shoulder.