This was way up in the Chugach at the base of Mt. Marcus Baker. I was picking up a couple of mountaineers who had had a bad time with an avalanche, and lost half their camp. I remember there had been a big storm and the snow was really wind blown and hard. The snow can get so hard and unevenly textured after a blow that we are unable to land. That is one of the reasons we prefer good lighting on the glacier, we need to see the shadows created by the drifts and avoid them. I have been inadvertently launched back into the air by hidden drifts, I have had my sunglasses bounced off my head from the firmness of the snow, and poor ol’ 77 has cracked landing gear tubes by smacking firm drifts. Part of the problem is that a ski does not absorb bumps like a 35″ Bushwheel. I am SUPER careful where I land up on the glaciers because when things go haywire at 8500′ in the Chugach, life gets really exciting for a few hours … don’t ask me how I know, because some things will not be divulged on the blog.