10 Feb 09

It was not that shitty. As good a day as any to go there for a poke around. It was never going to be good. Two visitors to Hakuba from the US, one Canadian and my brother. Luke took the narrow chute on the skiers right of the actual flutes and it held the best snow - as in it actually held the snow. The rest of us went down various lines on the flutes and dealt with insta-sluff of the dense variety and small slabs breaking away to ice. Fun. I attempted to go down the middle - first guy in - and it cleared itself of any soft snow before I was half way down. The remaining ice crust was uneven and flute shaped. Not easy to negotiate with full edge control at all.

The remainder of the long chute below the flutes did not contain the soft wind deposited snow that we had been finding the previous day on similar aspect and altitude. That was a bummer, but no complaints. It was hard chalky stuff, still fun. And lacking over 200cm of snow made the ravine exit tricker than usual but surprisingly not that hard at all.

Luke in the chute to the side of the flutes.

I heard that the American splitboarder involved in that Mume avalanche rescue a while back also managed to hit the ABC chutes on Karamatsu above Happo again yesterday. Good to hear that the greater Hakuba potential is being milked by adventurous visitors. I and a few others were on a north Hakuba Norikura outing for the same day but canceled it due to the previous day's intense wind (there has been 3 avalanches in that wider area over the prior days)