Sunshine

Day off ski into the northern Flathead Range to take advantage of green light conditions. 

• On the skin up, we observed very isolated wind drifted snow at mid and upper elevations. Wind slabs were thin and unreactive. 
• Large surface hoar observed on all aspects and up to 7800'. The largest surface hoar observed was around 6400', just about the stratus cloud layer. 
• Beneath surface hoar, there is 6 to 8 inches of near-surface facets down to the mid-January rain crust. We found this rain crust at 7800'. 

With the lack of red flags, we felt comfortable skiing steep, complex avalanche terrain.