Tenki Diary 28 Dec 07

I have returned from a fun and productive overnight camping trip to Norikura-Tengubara. A lot of wind scouring taking place above 2200m with large plumes of transported snow off the 2700-2900m peaks and ridges. At that altitude the blown snow was sublimating, however lower down it was most certainly creating a lot of windslab.

7am Friday morning, the last 24 hours has produced a wide temperature range as the cold spell abates and the warm days set in before the coming storm. A lot of weather activity at the moment. There has been very strong winds and snow transport at 2200m and above. As a result I saw obviously loaded N-NE aspect chutes that I didn’t approach for a snow profile due to likely instability. In the valley between Tsugaike and Goryu I found widespread surface hoar ranging from 2mm to 5mm in size. I didn’t see any above the tree line where the wind was strong. Likewise on S aspects it was melted during the day.

A big storm is coming, starting out warm and quickly becoming quite cold, strong winds, more than 100cm of snow. It should last most of next week.