Get your hand off my Haines

Today we snowmobiled into the Parton River drainage. Strong winds have left few soft surfaces in the alpine and scoured many places to the ground. Northern aspects had the best skiing/riding quality. We dug a snow pit at 1450m on a northeast aspect and found 150 cm of snow. 50 cm down from the snow surface was the Feb facet/surface hoar layer. We were able to produce moderate results on this layer during compression tests. This is our main layer of concern in the snowpack. Below this the snowpack was heavily faceted to ground.