7 March 08

It literally rains every Friday in Hakuba, or more often. Most of the time the rain turns to snow at about 1800m and we get rare glimpses of reasonably stable soft snow above treeline. Then it rains again. I don't mind so much, but I'd prefer it if the transition from winter to spring corn season would start up, rather than a long slow death of an unhealthy winter.

Hakuba Alpine Guides (www.hakuba-alpine-guides.com) recently had the pleasure of a few more great clients. All season we have been blessed with people who genuinely want to enjoy and explore the backcountry. That means less customer flow, but a much higher percentage of people who want the service that we offer, rather than high turnover copy/paste guiding.

Some footage of recent clients who booked us for three days running. I suggested they cancel their third day due to forecast rain. This was unfortunate for me as I enjoyed spending time with them in the backcountry. At least they ended on a high and hopefully with memories of pure backcountry with no other people, purposeful hikes, powder and a steeper long descent to end it off.

So much rain and warm weather has created a lot of early glide fractures that get covered easily each time it snows. Luckily the snowpack is not so deep and the chance of injury slightly lower. Eric went in one as we made our ascent on a new skin track. It was just like being back in Europe on a glacier, there one moment and the next, vanished, with not much more than a small yelp. He fell over 2 meters and was ok.