Tenki and Yuki Diary 20 Feb 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 +3C, min temp -11C and  -6C at 7am. 0cm of new snow in the last 24 hours.  Barometer has fallen sharply as expected to at 913mbar and the skies are mostly clear, with 25% cloud cover.  Wind aloft is light from the SW thru NW.  The clear night had produced 1mm surface hoar at 860m asl.

Field observations:  Yesterday we travelled to 2000m in the backcountry on south aspects.  The snow was very stable after a previous day of relatively clear warm weather and a clear night.   The wind was variable and very light to calm from SW or NW.  Cornices are not as big as expected and we found no hard slab on south aspects (there was not much slab at all on south aspects, soft or hard).  In some protected northern aspects here was surface hoar to 4mm above 1600m

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