Hakuba Snow Report – 10 Feb 2011

Weather conditions: Mostly overcast
New snowfall: 20cm (upper); 0cm (lower) [Goryu official]
Snow depth: Hakuba Goryu Top : 325cm [official]
Clouds obscuring the higher parts of Happo-one this morning with patches of blue in other places, today looks like a possible mixed bag of cloud, a little sun, maybe some light flakes later.Its a cold morning out, -10 degrees at 1400m at -4 degrees at 760m right now. Winds at altitude (2080m, around Happo-ike) are gusting from the NW to speeds of around 15m/s but down on the resort at Usagidaira (1400m) only 3m/s form the south so shouldn’t be any problems with wind unless right up the top or close to the ridgelines there might be some carry-over.Snow depth on Happo has not changed since midnight, Goryu are reporting 20cm new snow however and Cortina are saying 30cm up top so it seems there’s some freshies out there somewhere though observed fres snow overnight in the valley is around 2cm on the car window.

The forecast is for a litle snow overnight possibly, reports are still calling for a decent amount of snow Saturday.

Some observed slab avalanches yesterday as the new snow, 40cm at altitude, and layer below that from the weekend deposit have not bonded well to the pack below that – what was 10-15cm of sluff sliding off on Monday has now become 50-60cm + and travel in the backcountry in alpine areas and open bowls should be approached with extreme caution – better off finding good snow on the resort runs and in managed tree areas.