Murray from Alpine Backcountry Guides:

“Asahidake report from today, applicable to the terrain accessible from the ropeway. Today (20250213) I viewed multiple natural small size 1 wind slab avalanches, 1 each on both a south and a west aspect at roughly 1300m, most likely from last nights large snowfall and winds. Throughout the morning there was touchy loose dry avalanches occurring frequently and as the day progressed and the winds increased there was rapid formation of wind slab on north, west and south aspects. The slab was becoming more cohesive into the afternoon (1pm) and propagating roughly 10m, it was very reactive.

Shooting cracks were occurring both skinning and skiing, running around 5-10m, the slab was not cohesive enough to be very consequential and was breaking up after running a couple of meters. I think that if the winds remained constant with such a large amount of snow available for transport the slab will become more cohesive and much more consequential into tomorrow. I would be exercising a fair amount of caution in the coming day or two in avalanche terrain.”

FAT Ryan:

“I skied a few lift accessed sidecountry runs this morning around Furano. The most reactive conditions I have seen in Furano since when the borders were closed. I triggered a 15 - 20m wide slab in the upper skiers left section of Tengu, although it was only 5 - 10cm deep.

Later in the morning, despite the strong winds, I left the ski area and went into some more adventurous sub-alpine terrain to find large reactive cornices and several small slabs around the E aspects of ridgelines. Because the windspeed was around 40kmph today, there were a lot of rotors around terrain features leading to the formation of slabs in unexpected places including at low elevation where winds had funnelled down gullies.

If it continues to snow and blow for the next few days, as forecast, by tomorrow the slabs could be getting quite thick and dangerous in places.

Currently, it is obvious that the avalanche conditions in the alpine are high on loaded aspects. I am concerned about the following over the coming days: cornice fall, loose snow avalanches, storm slab avalanches and wind slab avalanches around E aspects, especially near ridgelines.

Large ice chunks that fell off trees a week ago are mostly buried but the large ones are still lurking below the surface.

Sunday looks like great weather but I would recommend being very careful if considering skiing in complex avalanche terrain, especially in loaded places up high.”