Tenki Diary 4 Jan 08

Weather data for the 24 hours to 7am today, 11cm new snow at my weather study plot, mostly falling during the night.  Warm during yesterday +2C, relatively mild last night -3.2C. Warming is forecast to continue.  The recent NYE storm snow has settled another 10cm.

Field weather observations at 1600m yesterday: light winds with moderate to strong gusts from the west, moderate to strong.  Patches of blue sky, snow in the afternoon.  No observed instability, although field of vision was limited across Happo south faces.  Goryu south faces are being heavily skied (by other people).  No observed instability. Yesterday I found tracks coming out of an area with recent snowfall covering them suggesting that the terrain had been skied just at the end of the NYE storm. Some people are braver or crazier than I ever thought. The area is riddled with terrain traps and avalanche terrain and was laden with 200cm new snow on a rain crust.