Tenki and Yuki Diary 7 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 5C, min temp -7C and  -4C at 7am. 6cm of new snow during the night, 85kg/m³ (9.5% water).  

Field observations: Yesterday we travelled in the backcountry to 1550m asl.  The midday the temperature was -2.4, calm wind, no snowfall and sunshine through thin broken clouds.  We found a stable NE snowpack in the Otari area, however other triggered a size 1.5 avalanche on the north faces of Happo BC.  The corresponding JAN weather and snow stability report can be found here.  I encourage people to use the valuable resource provided by JAN.

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