Know the weather = know the snow pack = know the stability.  For previous weather and snow reports use the Diary link at the top of the page.

Steep Deep Japan Hakuba  weather data for the 24 hours to 7am for 860m. Max temp +6C, min temp -8C and  -0C at 7am.1cm of new snow  in the last 24 hours.  Depth of snow 190cm after settlement.  Barometer 919mbar.  The sky is has 25% cloud cover, not snowing, no wind.  It is the start of some very good mountain weather in Hakuba.

Field observations:  Yesterday we travelled in the backcountry to 1900m and observed mainly northerly aspects in the Tsugaike-Otari area.  Stability was fair to good with little evidence of loading.  Storm snow was 30-40cm (and cold and dry) on top of a supportive well bonded base.  On pure northerly aspects there was little negative impact from the 080303 Chinese dust crust and no evidence of faceting in the top 50cm.  However lower down in thinner snowpack areas we found heavy faceting below a crust at about 30cm down in wind scoured areas.   Temperature at midday was -4.2, winds were light to moderate from the NW, with strong short gusts in the afternoon.  It snowed at 1-2cm per hour most of the day with 100% cloud cover all day.

As usual snow stability reports posted on Japan Avalanche Network (JAN) can be found here.  JAN have made available a valuable public resource that I encourage people to consult before entering the backcountry.

Please refer to the Hakuba backcountry travel advisory from the guides at Evergreen Outdoors. (Frequency of update is unreliable)