Blue skies and warm temps all week have made for beautiful days but, combined with a lack of new snow, have made for less than ideal backcountry conditions. Our ventures into the Happo backcountry keep landing us atop crusty slopes. We’ve therefore largely limited ourselves to skiing ridgelines to avoid avy danger in the sun-baked bowls (watched one wet slide come down a chute around midday today) and scoping out lines for when better conditions return. All in all, that means no great ski photos, but I have snapped some scenery shots of the Japanese Alps.
Not our tracks on that slope
That long, flat peak has several ski tracks on it -- we're guessing from TGR
Start of the hike out after skiing the north face of Happo
