General Observations

Haines Pass. Heard tell of sketchy conditions on the S ridge of Nadahini, from a group that aborted and went to find safer terrain. Also heard report of buried surface hoar found on NE aspect of Nadahini near 4500ft.

We stuck to mellow east aspects and enjoyed great snow and sun. Surface was dense powder above stiff wind slab, down to about 40cm. Below that was a noticeably weak facet layer sitting over a hard ice/rime crust. On these wind affected east aspects the stability was good and it would take a hard trigger to cause a shear on that facet layer, but propagation would be wide if you did. 

Overall, it’s a mixed bag of stable areas and certain protected aspects (most likely on NW-N-NE aspects) which contain a dangerous surface hoar layer still waiting for the trigger. Be careful out there and use conservative decision making, risk reduction techniques, and careful slope evaluation.