Thar SE Shoulder

Quick report

fchristian · Dec 19, 2024 · Cariboos

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Quick report

Weather
warm, wet, cloudy
Ride Type
openTrees, steepSlopes, cutBlocks, denseTrees
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
ok
Snow Conditions
heavy, wet, windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionTemp

Skied up Thar shoulder in some nice hot pow. Breakable crust 5cm deep BTL, at TL crust was ~20cm deep on average with some loaded pockets up to 40cm. Conditions were noticably warm from the get go and we carefully avoided exposure to open terrain. As we climbed the snow become significantly more wet and consolidated with ongoing warm temps, and we started seeing shooting cracks on steeper slopes, which were more pronounced in wind-loaded pockets. Turned around ~100m below summit when it started to rain, which ended up being light and short-lived. Shooting cracks increased in depth to about 20cm. Shooting cracks were occurring on an interface within the storm snow, not on the crust.

Weather

Avg Temp
2
Wind Speed
windSpeedCalm
Blowing Snow
none
Rainfall Rate
drizzle
Sky Condition
brokenClouds
Temperature Trend
rising
Precipitation Type
rain

2 degree air temp at 1800m at 11:30, some light start/stop drizzle <5mm while we were in the field

Avalanche

Trigger Type
natural
Wind Exposure
crossLoadedSlope
Avalanche Size
1
Start Zone Aspect
SE
Vegetation Cover
sparseTrees
Avalanche Character
looseWet
Number Of Avalanches
2-5
Start Zone Elevation
1700
Runout Zone Elevation
1600
Avalanche Observation
12hrsAgo
Start Zone Elevation Band
tln
Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
2024-12-19T20:30:00.138Z

Observed several loose wet sz1 on our way down as we passed under the cliff band that spans from about 1650-1700m. Trigger not determined.