Bailing on Thar/Nak Instability

Quick report

Weather

warm, sunny

Ride Type

sunnySlopes, denseTrees, mellowSlopes

Stayed Away

steepSlopes, convexSlopes, cutBlocks, alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

powder, heavy, wet, windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionTemp

Skinned from falls lake parking, aiming towards Thar/Nak col via the Nak south bowl. Temps rising rapidly throughout the morning and snow getting wet on solar aspects. While crossing an approx 35 degree open slope in the Nak south bowl, we felt rapid settling and whumpfing. Conducted a quick hand shear in a safer location and found an approx 50 cm slab which fractured cleanly on layer of facets above January crust. Concurrently, we heard the avalanche which occurred east of us on Thar shoulder (documented in other MIN reports). Made the decision to bail on our objective and exit via mellow trees back to pipeline road Tricky conditions - slab was sneaky underneath newly fallen and transported snow