6 Feb - warming

We were up on Happo this morning trying to get what we could of the acceptable stability and good snow before the weather closed in and temperatures rapidly rose. We started with clear weather at 7am and -*C in the valley at 800m. As forecast, clouds rolled in over the peaks by 10am and the temperature rose to +2 at 2000m! Warm snow is weak snow, rapidly warmed snow is weaker. Not a day to push our luck so we went for the low hanging fruit and had good untracked snow fro the top third. Had temps remained below zero, the snow would have been very good. Considering the weather that was rolling in, we had a successful easy lazy half day mission and had about the best Hakuba had on offer at the time. The crowds were not far behind us and conditions were cramped at the river, where a few wet boost were claimed. Steeper snow at lower altitudes near to the river was feeling decidedly weak at midday approached and the warm air penetrated the pack. Rain started to fall lightly in the afternoon. Before visibility closed in the morning I saw Size 1 and 1.5 loose snow avalanches on steep SE terrain at about 1900m running form rocks, possibly from yesterday rather than today.

Morning update: it rained about 35mm since sunset yesterday. Rain may have gone to 2100m, which I will confirm when I can.