20 Dec 2011 - great powder

Today was a perfect backcountry skiing day above the lower ski areas with powder absolutely everywhere, ok visibility, light winds, cold temps and moments of blue patches. And my skis make me happy. Why there was ONLY TWO OF US skiing up there I have no idea. Backcountry: it isn't very popular in these parts.

I broke a lot of trail in deep dry soft powder on the north side of Happo today between 2080m and 1600m with ski penetration up to knee deep. Two good runs in a gentle area with zero wind effected snow. The 24cm in the valley yesterday seems to have been 50cm above 2000m and the 111208 rain crust is getting deep away from the ridge, around 150cm down is a reliable average it seems. Even that the ridge there is 30cm of unconsolidated powder.

Happo ridge was slathered in powder today, it was everywhere you went, unlike normal form which is a combo of some powder, windslab, scoured ice and exposed rocks. It is a great place when there has not been any wind. We skied amongst very open trees on slopes up to 35 degrees, but mostly flatter than that. We had unlimited good powder that became progressively denser down to 100cm deep.

We didn't see any direct evidence of instability in the area that we travelled and could see. I felt more than comfortable in what we skied today. I'll leave comments an pack stability there. Strangely, by the end of the day despite -7C temps, the snow became denser and slower to ski. For technical info on the snowpack, see my JAN report here.

Thank you to Goma-san for a the good touring company. Anyone visiting the Good Color Cafe (home of Color Sports BC guiding in Hakuba) should say hello to her.