Tenki and Yuki Diary 12 Feb 08

Know the weather = know the snow pack = know the stability.

Steep Deep Japan Hakuba  weather data for the 24 hours to 7am for 860m asl Max temp 6C, min temp -8C and  +0C at 7am. 8cm of new snow, quite heavy 80kg/m3, equivalent to 8.7% water   Barometer trending upwards after dipping towards 900mbar

Field observations:  Yesterday we travelled in the backcountry to 1800m asl in the Happo area. Another rare sunny day, calm winds and -5C.  Three separate groups confirmed good stability on NW-N-NE aspects.  The weather and stability report from a local guiding operation can be found here on the Japan Avalanche Network database.

Please also refer to the Hakuba backcountry travel advisory from the guides at Evergreen Outdoors.