Skyland - Patrol Ridge

Dug two, north facing pits at 6,800 on Patrol Ridge deep in the Skyland region. HS 150-175cm. Both pits were ECTX. The top 100cm of snow slowly transitioned from very light pow down to 1F hardness. The bottom ~50 cm of the snowpack was weak and faceted. The stout early Decemeber crusts present in the Swan Range were not present here. I expected propogation with hard force on these basal facets, but both did not propogate. This was a cue to stay away from rocky, steep terrain with less snow. Across the valley, we saw two, small D1-1.5 avalanches below very rocky & steep west-facing cliffs. They looked wet and dirty like they resulted from warm rockfall. On an east facing slope on the very top of patrol ridge, we also saw a very small (D1), natural wind slab release that looked like it started from a small cornice fall. Things to note from the skin track:

• Widespread surface hoar (see photo) on all aspects above 6,400'. It was well preserved and is worrysome for the upcoming storm. On N facing slopes, it grew on top of very low density snow, so there might not be a bed surface, BUT on S facing slopes, we found a melt-freeze sun crust underneath 2" of blower snow with some surface hoar on top. Could be a nasty sandwich with another slab. We skied the S facing breakable crust briefly between 6-6,500'. 
• Winds were light out of the west on top of Patrol Ridge despite moderate winds back at the truck on Hwy 2. There's plenty of low-density snow availble for transport out there above 6,000'. 
• We had sun in Skyland, despite the freezing rain soup back in the Flathead this evening.
• Very low snowpack at Challenge Cabin quickly increased as we gained elevation.