Soft snow in Deep Creek

Started skinning at 10:00. Winds were calm, temps were right around freezing, and skies were partly cloudy, switching to mostly cloudly after noon. We found 6" of new snow near the trailhead, up to 12" on sheltered north aspects above 7,000. The new snow from last night was cold and low-density on top of an edgable crust. A couple of times I was able to break through the buried crust with a boot stomp or pole stab, but in most places the crust was firm and fully supportable.

At the summit ridge we saw a few small cornices & wind lips on N and NE aspects (pic 2). We stomped one wind lip onto a 35-degree north-facing test slope, which only produced minor sloughing (pic 1). While skiing down we also triggered some small sloughs on steeper mini-aspects >35 degrees, but the new snow was not showing slab characteristics.

On our second lap around noon, clouds began to roll in and some light precip began to fall, mostly in the form of small round crystals (mini-graupel).