Snowpit from Deep Creek

Today we toured up to the Deep Creek ridge via the road to obesrve the 12/11 persistent weak layer at about 7,700' on a NW facing aspect near treeline. Temperatures were above freezing and we were getting soaked by snow melting out of the trees on the way up. We also observed significant roller balls where we chose to dig our pits. It began to unexpectedly snow lightly as we gained the ridge. In all three pits, we did extended column tests to test for propagation on the 12/11 facet layer and got similar results of ECTN, meaning that the fracture initiated but did not propagate. 

Temperature profiles revealed a temperature gradient of less than one degree celcius per every ten centimeters, meaning that rounding is occuring.

We chose to ski the line below where we dug our snow pits and experienced sticky, heavy snow, (yet still fun to ski) and very thin coverage as we neared the road around 6,600' to ski back to the cars.