Nak/Thar Bowl

Quick report

Weather

warm, sunny

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, convexSlopes, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes, openTrees

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

hard, windAffected, powder, crusty

We rode a few runs in the Nak/Thar bowl Saturday. Some surface hoar from the night before was present at lower elevations but cleared away by wind in the upper elevations. A thick, impenetrable crust about 5-10cm down was present on the E/ENE aspects on our skin up. Rare patches of wind slab were present in the bowl. Minor sloughing and very small slabs (10cm thick x 60-90 cm wide) breaking off on steep slopes coming off the summit, but never travelling far or entraining surrounding snow. All in all conditions felt very stable.

Weather

Avg Temp

-5

Wind Speed

windSpeedLight

Blowing Snow

none

Sky Condition

scatteredClouds

Wind Direction

SW

New Snow24 Hours

0

Temperature Trend

rising

Precipitation Type

none

Precipitation24 Hours

0

Snowpack

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

SW, SE

Site Elevation

1940

Test Initiation

none

Site Elevation Band

alp, tln

Surface Conditions

variable, surfaceHoar, crust

Pole penetration at multiple locations revealed no unstable layers and maxed out at a hard imprenetrable melt/freeze crust 40cm down (in the deepest area). This layer was much shallower (5-10cm) at higher elevations with greater wind exposure as on E/ENE aspects on our skin track up (red track in google earth photo). Small blocks and slough were sliding on this layer on steep slopes at higher elevations, but were not travelling far and were not entraining surrounding snow.