15 Jan - powder. again.

17cm at 800m over night translated to almost 40cm at 1500m in Otari. Lazy day without hiking, great powder, clear morning, then snow moving in this afternoon. No comments on stability other than below tree line away from the recent wind is stable. Generally the more I get out this season the more I realise that it appears as though we are lacking snow, when we are not (see the recent snow data chart I posted). As I have already mentioned, the difference this season is no single big 100cm storm at valley bottom, which means no 200cm single storm where all the vegetation needs to be squashed and creeks need to be filled.

Another factor that has occurred to me is the relative lack of wind. Happo has, as usual, had it's share. However below tree line has been still. Even treeline areas near Otari have seldom revealed signs of strong wind and intense snow transport. It is wind transported snow that really rounds out the texture in the terrain and fills out the streams and gullies. So no large season starter storms around xmas, and relatively calm winds until recently means the terrain looks a lot more boney and people are still concluding that we are missing a lot of snowfall.

Conditions so far this winter have been consistent, cold, reasonably windless, and mostly stable at treeline and below. As today's chart indicates we have had new snowfall in almost every daily 24 hour period since it started (later than normal). Powder has not been in short supply.