Dust on crust at Deep Creek

Ski tour day in Deep Creek Canyon today. Skies cleared to full bluebird by early afternoon with above freezing air temps. Winds built throughout the day but never really felt more than moderate out of the west at ridgetops- no blowing snow was observed.

As has been noted in recent obs there was 2-3" of dust over crust conditions on north aspects in this area. We found good skiing particularly on low angle slopes. Some slight aspect changes would lead to areas of sun effected snow mixed in with colder drier snow, but in general ski conditions were good. 

Surface snow is showing signs of faceting (crunchy/sandy feel) and on inspection the graupel from the most recent storm is still preserved above the rain crust (see photo). 

No signs of instability were observed in the terrain that we covered today.