North island is Schoen off

North island got hammered over the weekend, so naturally we had to go check it out. In the Cain backcountry we found 45 cm of new snow, making for slow trail breaking and large wind slabs even in the trees. We dug a pit on a west aspect near tree line and found moderate reactivity both on the most recently buried crust, as well as the early February one that is still coated in facets! That's one nasty facet sandwich. While it wasn't too reactive on the lower crust in this location, we suspect that in the alpine where the most recent crust is not as thick, there is the potential for avalanches to be triggered surprisingly large and wide. With all this in mind, we kept to low angle terrain and had a mellow day in the pow! Just don't turn too deep, you'll hit rock bottom.