Tengubara on xmas day

25 Dec 07

Today Mio and I again toured around the Tengubara area. After the strong winds of yesterday and snow fall, we expected to find some significant windslab on southerly aspects. One snow pit on the lee side of a steep wind lip certainly revealed the expected slab, but not many signs of instability. This was only at 1800m. At 2200m the snow was heavily wind affected with many cornices. We saw a few people ski from the top of Norikura. None produced any instability.

Our descent was very enjoyable: good visibility for the first time in 2 weeks, reasonably dry fine grained wind clown snow, fast and easy riding in good trees. It was a rewarding day in the backcountry. As usual, my digi camera battery refused to work for more than a few seconds, so I only managed one quick photo of Mio.