Tenki and Yuki Diary 1 March 08

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 asl Max temp +10C, min temp -6C and  -2C at 7am. 34cm of new snow in the last 24 hours with a  high density of 79kg/m3 (8.6% water).  Depth of snow 224cm. Still snowing at a rate of 3cm per hour or a little more.  Barometer is steady at 901mbar.  Wind aloft is light to moderate from the SW.

Field observations:  Yesterday we travelled to 1900m in the backcountry on on NE-NW aspects above Happo.  All solar aspects where again being hit very hard by the sun on the previous new snow.  South aspects are terrible and with thick crusts each morning, very sun-soft by midday and refreezing again overnight.   We found wind scoured and icy ridges with hard chalky win effected snow at 1600m, which softened significantly at 1300m and was quite ok to ride and stable. The max temperature at 1600m was +1C, so even in very sheltered aspects the snow was being temperature effected.  Field data and stability assessment from the Japan Avalanche Network is available here.  I encourage people to use this valuable resource.

Too much snow has fallen and today does not seem like a good day for backcountry travel so I am taking it easy inside.

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