Temperatures at 860m asl in Hakuba have started a warming trend.  I never really got very cold anyway, with few days with a max temperature below zero in the valley.  Living in an uninsulated and poorly heated home was not uncomfortable.  More warm(er) weather forecast for next week.

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 -4C, min temp -2C and  -0C at 7am. 5cm of new snow (strangely off-white) in the last 24 hours.  Depth of snow 210cm after settlement.  Barometer is steady at 906mbar after falling during the night.  The sky is has about 90% cloud cover with moments of filtered sunlight.

Field observations:  Yesterday we travelled in the backcountry to 2200m asl on generally southerly aspects and had a very enjoyable and successful tour with a long descent.  We found fair stability between 1600m and 2200m.  At 2200m the recorded temperature was -7C with moderate winds from the SW.  Several open alpine routes were skied with no signs of instability, although at 1900m we saw some warm snow sluffing triggered by skiers. Other reports from low altitude north faces (below 1600m asl, Happo and Tsugaike) revealed fair to good stability as well.  I heard that Hakuba 47 had an in-bounds avalanche on a NE aspect in a confined gully above the piste, but have not been able top confirm.  Publicly available information from members of the Japan Avalanche Association (JAN) can be found here for the Tsugaike/Norikura area up to 2600m asl.  A large and long running slide path was also observed propagating from the high alpine (2700m) on a SE aspect and then running through soft snow around the huge gully onto a ENE aspect.

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