Tenki Diary 8 Jan 08

Weather data for the 24 hours to 7am on 8 Jan: 3cm new snow at 860m asl falling in the early hours of the morning. Still very warm in the valley, max +7C during the day and –4C overnight. At 2600m asl yesterday winds were moderate to strong from the SW, however little snow transport was observed due to it all being scoured and loaded on the previous windy day. Temperature at 2400m was –1.2C at 1300hrs. Small slab avalanche activity was observed on the east face of Norikura Dake at 2400m, directly above the popular ascent route. Likely time of release was late on Jan 6th. The slide was small, class 1, 20x20m in area and was not a surprise to see it at all.