It’s a beautiful Christmas Day here in Hakuba. The skies are blue and the temperature is warm, which will make it a great day to be out on the slopes. The hard pack snow will soften by mid-day and make the slopes enjoyable today.
The powder of last week will have well and truly compacted by now, and what once was soft could now be hardened. So be careful when heading into areas of snow that may look soft! The warm weather over the past couple of days has caused snow melt therefore, possibly causing icy patches in shaded areas on the mountain.
The slopes are still relatively quiet and it should be a calm day on resort, so make the most of it before the New Year rush.
Conditions in the alpine are much the same as yesterday, with wind packed powder on exposed ridges.
There has been no new snow overnight and it doesn’t look like there will be any snow coming our way tomorrow either. You can expect to see another beautiful day, with sunshine and light winds.
Present avalanche conditions:
High (in the alpine)
Considerable (in the tree line)
Considerable (below tree line)
Lots of wind transport over the past two days has created a thick wind slab on lee-ward slopes. Expect cornices and wind slab on NE facing aspects. The warming trend of the weather will create a heavier wetter snowpack and some melt freeze crust will also be found on lower solar radiated aspects. Due caution should be taken entering steeper start zones in the alpine as snowpack will be variable and possible instability around convex ridges and rocks.
Official resort snow depths on 25th Dec 09:
Happo-one:
80cm (Shirakaba)
90cm (Sakka/Kitaone)
190cm (Kurobishi/Usagidaira)
Hakuba Goryu:
100cm (Iimori)
120cm (Toomi)
185cm (Alps daira)
Hakuba 47:
158cm
Tsugaike Kogen:
100cm (Kanenonaruoka)
85cm (Maruyama)
195cm (Tsuganomori)
Hakuba Iwatake:
80cm (Shomen)
106cm (Sancho)
Sun Alpina Sanosaka:
90cm