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Today was a wonderful day up on the mountain. Knee deep powder on a soft base, with no competition to get all the fresh snow you want. Butch made another great video and the title says it all – today was “THE DAY”. Check out Butchs fall a minute and a half in.

New Snow (Resort): 15cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): 5cm
Weather: Very heavy snow
Snow Depth: 210cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Continued snow over the next couple of days.
Open Areas: The bottom half of the mountain has been badly affected by recent weather, and most slopes down low are closed.

Heavy snow fell overnight and we awoke to blue skies and 15cm of fresh up the top of the mountain. The snow was silky smooth and there was not a trace of the yellow sand which has been plagueing the slopes for the last couple of weeks. It was a wonderful day to be on the mountain.

At the moment it is snowing really hard in the village, temperatures are cold and the snow is top quality. Tomorrow is going to be another fantastic day.

The website is undergoing some changes at the moment, so things are a bit messy. It shouldn’t be too long until the new site is fully functional.

Nagano Go is currently undergoing an update… Things should be working a little better in a short while.

Northern Nagano is a skiers paradise. From the peak of Kenashi Yama, the highest point of Nozawa Onsen Ski Area you can see ski areas with a total of 87 lifts, all of which are accessible in around an hour or less by car from Nagano.

Over the next week or so we will update our website with Mountain, Accommodation, and Access information for some of Nagano’s less well known Ski Areas.

Information for Shiga Kogen including mountain, accommodation and access information.

Snow Reports coming for other ski areas coming in the 2009/2010 season.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be adding information for Myoko Kogen to our site.

Check back over the next week for information on ski areas, accommodation and access for Myoko Kogen.

Snow reports for Myoko Kogen, coming in the 2009/2010 season.

New Snow (Resort): 2cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Cloudy and cold, occasional light snow.
Snow Depth: 195cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Rain and snow over night.
Open Areas: The bottom half of the mountain has been badly affected by recent weather and slopes are beginning to close.

Yesterday evening heavy snow fell over the resort and village, washing away large patches on the bottom slopes and depleting snow depths further up the mountain. At some point the temperatures dropped drastically and it snowed a little, so conditions were textbook dust on crust. Temperatures stayed low during the day and there was a biting wind blowing.

The forecast for the second half of this week looks really great. Nice cold temperatures and reasonable snow is expected. Could be one last cold blast for the season.

New Snow (Resort): 0cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Cloudy, light rain
Snow Depth: 210cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Rain and snow over night.
Open Areas: The bottom half of the mountain has been badly affected by recent weather and slopes are beginneing to close.

Strong winds kept both gondolas closed today. Heavy rain overnight and warm winds have had a big effect on the snow, with the bottom half of the mountain looking very patchy and many slopes are now completely unskiable. These include – All the steeps on the bottom half of the mountain except challenge are now closed, as is Karasawa. We are getting towards the end of March so this is not too out of the ordinary, and Yamabiko, Uenotaira, Paradise and the Yunomine/Mizunashi area down to the Nagasaka Gondola mid station still have complete cover. The rain and sun has actually improved conditions, instead of being sticky it is now slushy.

The temperature in the village was up around the mid teens today. Temperatures are expected to drop over night and we will have more precipitation overnight and tomorrow, rain in the village, rain turning to snow at the top of the mountain.

New Snow (Resort): 0cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Rain/Sleet/Snow
Snow Depth: 220cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Fine tomorrow followed by cooling temperatures with rain turning into snow next week.
Open Areas: The bottom half of Skyline is now closed, along with all the steeps on the bottom half of the mountain apart from Challenge and Gran Prix.

It is a grey old public holiday here in Nozawa at the moment. Visibility is next to zero on the top two thirds of the mountain and we have had on and off precipitation all day long. Nothing to make a dramatic difference in snow quality, but hopefully it will go some way to covering that horrible yellow sand.

This weekend is the last long weekend of the season, and likely to be the last time we will see big queues for the gondola until next year.

Early next week we have some good cold weather and snow forecast to come through.

New Snow (Resort): 0cm (Yamabiko)
New Snow (Village): 0cm
Weather: Fine
Snow Depth: 240cm (Yamabiko)
Outlook: Warm temperatures throughout the week, light snow tomorrow evening.
Open Areas: The bottom half of Skyline is now closed, along with all the steeps on the bottom half of the mountain apart from Challenge and Gran Prix.

The only way to describe the snow condition at the moment in Nozawa is absolute rubbish. The consistency of the snow is like a mix between concrete and glue. Weatherwise it was a beautiful day on the mountain, nice to go up and enjoy the views and maybe a picnic.

The poor snow condition at the moment is due to the heavy snow that fell yesterday mixed in with the yellow sand which blew in. I think for the snow to recover we either need some new stuff to fall on top (of course fresh snow would be much better), or for the mountain to go through freeze thaw a couple of times (which would make it icy/slushy)

The forecast has some snow tomorrow night for the top of the mountain. Next week there are a couple of fronts expected to come through, if temperatures drop far enough we could be in for some decent snow.