Good Stability in Deep Creek

We went into the Lawnmower in the Deep Creek area. Although Kyle and Haylee had skied in the zone, this was my first time there. For me this was a terrain and snowpack familiarization day. First impressions, that is a scary piece of avalanche terrain and a beautiful area. We skinned up the northwest ridge system and dug two-thirds of the way up and again at the top. In our snowpits, we tried to capture a good picture of multiple elevation bands that encompass the potential starting zones of the run and develop a picture of what we might encounter. Snowpits were 190-265 cm deep and largely resembled what I have seen in the northern Gallatin Range. From my understanding, this is an unusually deep and strong snowpack for the area. The basal facets were the most concerning layer in our 190cm pit (1000' vertical below the top). These were 1 Finger minus to 4 Finger plus hardness and rounding. We just dug to the dirt layer on our upper pit. There was 50-70 cm of settled new snow from this weekend's storm cycle. We got ECTN15 results at the interface below the recent snow (see attached snowpits). 

With no signs of instability, a strong snowpack structure, no recent avalanche activity in the visible terrain around us, calm conditions/ no wind-loading, and stable results in our snowpits, we choose to ski the main run. We did discuss that due to the nature of the terrain, each skier would be effectively solo for periods of time because there are limited areas to stop that aren't exposed to the avalanche hazard. 

One skier triggered a very small loose snow avalanche that ran 50 vertical feet at the top of the run. Other than that, the descent was uneventful. 

Temps at the car when we got back at 3 PM were 37 degrees. With sunny skies, the snow on south and west-facing terrain was getting moist and sticky, but we did not observe any wet snow activity.