South Fork Deep Creek- Town Hill

Hi,

My partner and I toured up the south fork of deep creek and skied the lawnmower on town hill. Conditions were variable, we found good snow in the upper portion of the lawnmower but the mid to low elevations were extremely scoured and/or icy. Snow along ridgelines had been drifted into thick, very hard slabs. We dug a pit at 9000', NW aspect. HS170, ECTPX. The snowpack above the weak, sugary facets near the ground seemed generally right side up and stable. No cracking or collapsing except for a thin layer of what looked like near surface facets or surface hoar in the top two inches. We kicked off many small, inch to half-inch thick wind slabs on our way down, that only propagated a few feet out while skiing down. We weren't concerned given this weak snow was confined to the very top of the snowpack, but it could be an issue in the future. Near the bottom of the slide path we saw one small wind slab avalanche that was likely skier triggered, but that was the only avalanche activity we observed. Hopefully this info is useful.