Snow Pit on Cottonwood Hill

We toured around Cottonwood hill in Truckee today. Before dropping in to our first run we dug a pit. The result of an extended column test was ECTN14 45cm down in the new snow. After 30 whacks we saw no other failures, but when we pulled at the back of the column that layer did break cleanly. We skied the slope, which maxed out at 32 degrees, one at a time. Shortly afterwards several other parties arrived at the same area, none of which had beacons that showed up when we turned ours to search mode. One of these parties dropped in directly above us as we skinned up. Uncomfortable the direction things were going we relocated elsewhere on the hill.