Hakuba is currently under partly cloudy skies and it is snowing lightly. High winds last night have transported a lot of snow off ridges and exposed areas and deposited the snow into leeward slopes and gullies.
Cold temperatures in the low teens have hardened up any wet snow from yesterday and this also allowed any precipitation to fall as snow and not rain. Rain was however reported to as high as 1800m yesterday so the snow will have absorbed that moisture, settled/compressed the snowpack and created a crust layer. We then had 20-25cm of new snow atop that layer, so what looks like soft powder may be hard breakable crust underneath.
The forecast is calling for partly cloud skies today turning to snow overnight. Not heaps of snow but any amount will be great to soften up the ice/crust and wind pack we have on the slopes today.
Weather conditions: | Partly cloudy |
New snowfall: | 0 cm |
Snow depth: | 200 cm (Goryu base) 320 cm (Goryu top) |