Hakuba received a light snowfall overnight of about 2cm. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in Hakuba, sunshine, hardly any wind and hardly anyone on the slopes!
Current conditions on the resorts will be mostly chopped and packed powder, hard pack and groomers. The powder of last week has really compacted over the past few days. As well as the sun yesterday really did a good job of melting any south facing slopes. Expect a melt freeze crust on any south facing aspects.
Still a great base for early season and with light snow expected over the week it should add to the already good conditions and push down some of those bushes still poking through.
Present avalanche conditions:
Considerable (in the alpine)
Considerable (in the tree line)
Considerable (below tree line)
More settlement in the snowpack over the past few days have decreased the avalanche level from high to considerable. Still there is a good wind slab out there and leeward slopes will have inconsistent depths in the snowpack. South facing aspect will have had a lot of solar radiation and thus in afternoons will be softenin up, wet snow slides will be possible on these 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.