15 January, 2026

A brief addition to yesterdays post by Ryan of Furano Adventure Tours/ Northern Flow:

Today, while skiing around 1000m, I ski cut a size 1 wind slab avalanche near Furano Ski Area. - A few metres wide and about 30cm deep which ran a couple hundred m down a steep slope. This was in a location that often avalanches right after or during most storms. I put some deep turns on other features that usually avalanche and nothing happened.

So it would seem to me that after skiing a variety of steep aspects up to 1000m today in the mountains around Furano Ski area, that conditions are already becoming more stable.

However, I noted that the wind was still a strong Westerly in the afternoon @1000m with a lot of dry powder around available for wind transport. It was common to see snow streaming off the top of cornices onto E aspects throughout the day.

Therefore, from the time of writing this, although I interpret there to be only a low or moderate risk of storm slab avalanche, there is likely still a considerable risk of wind slab avalanches in the high alpine on E aspects especially near ridge lines above 1000m.

Lots of large unstable cornices to look out for too. There has been a significant amount of new snow in the last few days.

I noticed creeks have been well filled in and bridged by this storm, but the snow covering the gaps is still soft and unconsolidated, so breaking through into the creeks is a risk. I expect these snow bridges to firm up in the coming days to make getting around easier, as well as snow stability to improve in general. - Likely stability is improving from now until the 20th when the next significant storm may arrive.

Note, I have not been to Daisetsuzan recently but heard reports of shooting cracks during the storm yesterday.

Enjoy.