Yesterday we had some very strong winds blowing around, the ‘haru-ichiban’ – a strong wind that always get when spring has arrived. The winds have now calmed down for today.

Temperatures are remaining warmer, and it looks like it will keeping fairly mild into tomorrow but it will drop down and get colder again over the weekend. You want snow? Looks like we are going to be on the receiving end soon enough, probably today high up as the rain continues in the village but we should be seeing snow at village level as well sometime tomorrow. If the forecast has got it right we may actually be getting a decent amount of new snowfall by the end of the weekend and into Monday. (You can tell I wrote those last few sentences before it turned into snow falling in the village just now – but there’s every chance it will revert back! Borderline stuff at the moment!)

Cloud covers all of the village and mountains this morning, so pretty poor visibility out on the mountain.

It’s very quiet at the moment in Hakuba but with the weekend tomorrow no doubt things will liven up for the weekend. If you are visiting, take care and have fun out there. Spring-like conditions out there for the most part right now – think granular (zarame) – but tons of fun to be had. The new snowfall forecast over the next few days should see conditions improve, so collective finger-crossing everyone…

It is a rather dull and cloudy start to the day today in Hakuba with very temperatures this morning. It has really jumped up after a fairly cold night overnight, but today temperatures look likely to rise to around 9 degrees in Hakuba.

It is also very windy in the town and on the mountain early on, and some of the lifts at resorts around the village are going to be affected by this. Right now it looks like Happo, the top lifts at Goryu and lifts at 47 are on standby waiting for the winds to calm down a bit.

We might not be able to avoid rain tomorrow at village level unfortunately, but it may well be falling as snow higher up on the hills. Actually, from tomorrow through the weekend we might be in for a decent amount of snowfall on the slopes if we are lucky so I hope to be able to bring news of that as it happens. Temperatures are set to drop considerably once again around Sunday.

Yesterday out on the slopes there was some nice the snow dry and powder snow covering some icy-ness under, though snow conditions on lower slopes was more icy and hard. Good practice for the old legs!

It doesn’t look like the same can be said about tomorrow as we are going to see it get much warmer – up to around +7 degrees in the daytime. We are likely to see rain in the village on Friday as well but there’s more positive news with snow likely from Friday to Monday on the mountains and potentially a decent amount of snow coming down from the skies as well. Hopefully by Saturday we will also be seeing snowfall lower down in the village as well. You know the drill – fingers crossed etc.

Earlier on this morning it was nice and clear with blue skies on show, but since then wispy like clouds have gradually formed and it’s much a greyer look to the skies now – those getting out early will have enjoyed the earlier conditions, I’m sure. It’s amazing how sometimes it can change so quickly. Having said that, still nothing is falling and visibility out there on the mountains is good.

There has been no new snowfall since yesterday, but the temperature stayed cool enough. Since today is actually a national holiday in Japan, the slopes are looking much busier than usual for a Tuesday – though still not like a busy weekend and things should return back to normal again from tomorrow.

Light breeze of 3 to 5 m of NW to W wind all day. The temperature this morning was around -2C at 9am and down to around -8c up on the top areas, but it will probably rise to around +4 later on this afternoon.

It’s looking good for more snowfall to be over the Hakuba valley from around Friday and over the weekend and so hopefully we can look forward to another new layer for the weekend.

The recent snow fall and strong winds from the west have loaded the east aspects at tree line and in the alpine. This snow is over riding the melt forms (rain crust at elevation) of the weekends rain event and the bond to this melt layer is variable. Natural avalanches are not expected, but human triggered slides are still a definite possibility. Today’s clearer skies and warming temperatures will add to the load and stress at the surface on solar aspects.

It is advisable to take due caution travelling in the backcountry today and stay away from cornices and unsupported slopes with variable depth of loading and strong solar radiation.

We have some good news in the valley and mountains to report this morning. Those rain clouds from last night turned into snow around midnight, and kept snowing with NE wind till this morning. It was still snowing mid-morning, but the forecast is saying that we are going to get some sun this afternoon and it is indeed looking like it is clearing up. I can see some blue sky up there now. Temperatures are helping us today by keeping colder than they have been.

Good reports from the slopes. Goryu and Happo One got up to 20cm of new snowfall, Corntina has 20cm of new as well, but the wind was a bit strong this morning around Otari Valley, so there might be some wind deposits here and there and it should seem deeper in places.

This strong wind, however, can cause windslab, plus there is the distinct possibilities of wet avalanches. The warm weather and rain that has fallen over the past few days has been creating a weak layer of sugary snow crystal. Travel in the backcountry area is not recommended today.

The weather forecast saying that we are going to have cold temperatures overnight tonight into tomorrow but a generally fine day tomorrow. Fingers crossed temperatures remain cold and actually the forecast says that conditions should remain calm with 0 to 600m of freezing level until around Thursday. We might see more rain clouds around Thursday night with high freezing level. For now though let’s ignore that and enjoy the new snow conditions!