Another morning waking up with snow on the car and nice -4 temperatures in the valley. Yesterday was fantastic out there with great powder for the hounds and nice groomed runs in fantastic condition for the rest, and last nights snow only adds to that. Only about 5 cms in the valley and up to 20 cms up top but every bit helps and every flake of snow is another piece of powder to be smashed.
Visibility isn’t the greatest today due to the snow which is forecast to continue through the day. Changeable winds from the West and a max. temperature of 1 over lunch time pushing back down to -5 degrees as the day progresses. Cold temperatures forecast for the rest of the week along with snow flurries. Still a fair bit of precipitation looking to be coming our way…
Avalanche Warning!
Updates on the news yesterday about the slide at Tsugaike. A group of female snow-boarders, part of some kind of university/technical college group were led by their guide under a rope into closed terrain in an effort to get down from the mountain on time to meet their deadline. They were struck by a size 2.5 slide on the cat track. All people were found however 2 of the victims were taken off the mountain yesterday in comas and the news stated yesterday one of these woman died.
The lesson to be learned here is that signs posting avalanche danger mean it! Stay out of these areas as it is not just yourselves that you are putting at risk it is others on slopes below as well. And don’t listen to your friends who duck the ropes and say it’s sweet…
Avalanche Hazard as of Feb 5th:
Alpine: High
Tree line: High
Below Tree Line: Considerable
See Below for International Danger scale classifications or click on the Canadian Avalanche Association web page for the International Danger Scale.
TEMPERATURE IN THE VILLAGE:
-4 degrees C.
TEMPERATURE AT TOP OF MOUNTAIN:
-7 degrees C.
WIND:
Changing Westerlies.
VISIBILITY:
Average due to snow
LIFT OPERATION:
Goryu Toomi, Hakuba 47, Happo-One, Tsugaike Kogen, Iwatake, Cortina, Sanosaka, Sun Alpina, Minekata, Hakuba Highland, Yanaba, open.