Steamboat & Flat Tops

No avalanches observed except for one small sluff in steep north-facing terrain.

Mostly clouds trending to less clouds in the afternoon. No wind and mild.

The snowpack layering is similar to Rabbit Ears and the Zirkels where I traveled the last few days. Snowpack depths are about 130 cm on northerly slopes above 9000 feet and about 90 cm on souths. On a north-facing slope at 9400 ft., where I dug, I found a snow depth of 150 cm. I got a result of ECTP17 on a thin layer of facets beneath a rain crust. This was at 90 cm from the surface or 60 cm from the ground. Similar to other areas, the basal facets aren't weak, they are sometimes moist, and a failure at the ground would be very unlikely unless a larger avalanche broke on the facets mentioned above. I also found a layer of buried surface hoar, 42 cm from the surface. This layer did not propagate in ECTs and I didn't find the same layer on adjacent slopes. On lower elevation northerly slopes (8k to 9k), I found a much thinner snowpack, generally between 80 to 100 cm. The most concerning crust/facet combo is down 35 to 45 cm from the surface. I got inconsistent propagating results on this layer. Basal facets are moist and not an issue. With a long stretch of dry weather ahead, the thin snowpack at this elevation will see extensive faceting. This could make conditions in the below treeline elevation band quite variable during the next storm cycle with lower elevations potentially weaker than the higher below treeline elevations. On southerly slopes, I did not find a concerning snowpack structure in a few quick pits. The snowpack was 70 to 90 cm deep. A thick, melt-freeze crust lay beneath the most recent snow. I found faceted snow under this crust, but there isn't much of a slab, and it would be hard to affect this relatively strong weak layer. Southerly slopes have seen some melting and freezing at the surface the last few days, leading to one inch thick sometimes breakable crusts in the morning that melt each sunny day.