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New Snow (Resort): 10-20cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): 5cm
Weather: Light Snow
Snow Depth: 125cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Light snow continuing for the next week
Open Areas: The resort is almost entirely open. Watch out for uncovered ground and trees.

Some snow last night, but not nearly as much as we had hoped for. Heavy snow for about 2 hours this morning left up to 20cm on top of the groomers at Yamabiko, however Yamabiko does not really have the steepness you need to enjoy that. Lower down the mountain there was less snow, there is still plenty of grass showing through and a scratchy bottom 5-10cm below the surface.

Tonight there will be night skiing at Nagasaka until 11:30pm, with a fireworks display to welcome in the new year, with hot wine and sake provided by the resort.

Patrol tidies up after the nighter - 29/11/2008. Night skiing on Nagasaka is on tonight until 830, and tomorrow until 11pm.

New Snow (Resort): 0cm
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Cloudy in the village, foggy up top
Snow Depth: 120cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Heavy snow tonight
Open Areas: Everywhere except the steeps of Skyline and on the Hikage side. All lifts except Kandahar are running.

Yesterdays weather was as good as it gets. Apart from the very long lines early on in the day, the mountain handled the traffic well. Lining up early for the first gondola, and making the most of the quiet period when everyone goes in for lunch is the way to go.

The weather has moved in and we are expecting some heavy snow in Nozawa tonight and lots more snow in Nozawa’s foreseeable future.

Majestic view of Myoko Kogen, taken from the top of Hikage

New Snow (Resort): 0cm
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Fine
Snow Depth: 120cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Snow
Open Areas: Everywhere except the steeps of Skyline and on the Hikage side. All lifts except Kandahar are running.

It’s a beautiful day in Nozawa, with not a cloud in the sky and perfect views in every direction. It is quite crowded though, with lines for the Nagasaka Gondola stretching down the stairs and along the road until mid morning.

This won’t last for long, tomorrow the weather is due to move in again with heavy snow set to continue into the new year.

New Snow (Resort): heaps
New Snow (Village): 20cm
Weather: Snowing
Snow Depth: 115cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Snow
Open Areas: all lifts apart from Kandahar are due to run today, Yamabiko is currently closed due to high winds. Challenge, schneider, and Skyline are closed.

We had a brief respite yesterday, but woke up this morning to more heavy snow. The snow has yet to melt on the heated roads, a good sign that there is deep powder to be enjoyed. Competition for those first tracks would have been intense this morning, as many more people have flooded in to the village for the busy holiday season.

The outlook is for a lot more snow in the coming week.

Stick watch shows this season is making a pretty good comeback.

About snow measurement at Nozawa: Unfortunately Nozawa Onsen does not have an accurate measure of new snow. The new snow figure that you will see on the resort website and snow Japan is a measure of snow depth change on this pole, not necessarily how much snow has fallen.

New Snow (Resort): heaps
New Snow (Village): heaps
Weather: Snowing
Snow Depth: 115cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Snow
Open Areas: Both gondolas and all lifts apart from Karasawa, Challenge and Utopia are open. Anything steep on the bottom half of the mountain (apart from Hikage but including Skyline) is not open yet.

A nice start to the busy new years period in Nozawa Onsen today. Both Gondolas are running (lengthy queues), and there is skiing top to bottom. It’s a shame they weren’t able to open Skyline. My guess is that Skyline, Schneider and Challenge will be open tomorrow or the day after, with the black runs off Skyline needing a few more days probably. It may even be into the new year before they see any action. The snow is light and plentiful, with waist deep powder reported in some areas on Yamabiko. Skiers, boarders and the resort are collectively sighing in relief as the season has finally gotten properly underway just in the nick of time.

New Snow (Resort): 40cm
New Snow (Village): 40cm
Weather: Snowing
Snow Depth: 90cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Snow
Open Areas: Both gondolas are closed due to high winds. The Hikage and Nagasaka triple lifts are running.

It is snowing very hard in Nozawa Onsen at the moment, as it has been since last night. Unfortunately neither of the Gondolas are running. There is some skiing on the Hikage slope, but a quick look at the TV shows huge queues and barely room to move for anyone.

I’m sorry there are no photos of skiing and boarding waist deep powder or stick watch today, I hope these photos of ridiculous amounts of snow on top of cars will suffice. 

Butch gets the shovel out for the first time this season

It has been snowing very hard since last night - thirty centimetres of snow in the village. It has been snowing even longer up top, and they are grooming the bottom slopes as I write this. Tomorrow should be top to bottom.

Unfortunately, the wind is strong in town and probably very strong up top. I give the gondola a 0.5% chance of moving this morning – I really hope I am wrong because there is some very deep snow to be enjoyed!

New Snow (Resort): 0cm
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Fine
Snow Depth: 50cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Snow
Open Areas: Yamabiko (All courses), Skyline connect, Uenotaira, runs from Uenotaira to the mid station of the Nagasaka Gondola.

A chilly morning today, with blue skies, icy roads and probably quite crunchy slopes. It has since clouded over, and the TV camera on Uenotaira is showing light snow falling. I learnt some new Japanese today: bakudan teikiatsu – explosive low pressure system. There is one about to arrive in Nozawa and not a moment too soon! The groomers will be working overtime trying to open up as much terrain as possible for Saturday, the start of the peak New Years season. 

I hope you are all enjoying Christmas. Last night was a very quiet night in Nozawa’s few bars. Hopefully a few feet of powder will save the day and bring us some Christmas cheer.