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Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, Nth America and Sth America cover most of the regions where there are consistent snowfalls other than Japan... razz

 

The thing that makes Japan really stand out is the quantities of good quality powder snow that fall each season. There are places that get as much or more snow than we do but they are predominantly on the western side of continents and have wet maritime climates, such as NW US, the Southern Patagonian Andes or Southern NZ. They are prone to great variations in temperature and snow quality throughout their seasons. Some parts of the US, more inland like Utah and Wyoming do get large amounts of quality snow also but we're normally talking about at resorts with lifts up over 3000m.

 

Japan being not far off the northern part of the East Asian continent experiences a more continental climate through the winter months. A very cold and dry Northwesterly airflow straight out of Siberia is predominant. Luckily for us there is a warm body of water between us and Asia which pumps in enough moisture to the mix to give us our prodigious amounts of quality powder. I'm fairly confident that Kutchan near Niseko receives the highest snowfall amounts for any location under 200m asl anywhere in the world. It's impressive stuff party

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muikabochi,

A quick look at google maps, with terrain turned on shows that the whole of Niseko village area is between 200 and 400m. The very bottom road at Hirafu is just on the 200m contour and the top of the road which gets you to one of the hotels (I can't remember which one, but it's above the base lift) is on about 340m.

 

The bottom of the Family lift is at around 260m.

 

Thank you Mr Google!

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No argument from me! The question was about the base. 260-300m it's not worth arguing about.

 

FWIW, the snowfall records for Kutchan are here . Interesting stuff.

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I've experienced similar quantities, consistency and quality to this part of Hokkaido at:

 

The Utah resorts close to Salt Lake City

Interior British Columbia resorts of Canada

Big Mountain, Montana

Summit County resorts of Colorado

 

Big difference is that there are a greater percentage of skiers and snowboarders who are able to enjoy the deep. Thus it gets tracked out quicker there than here.

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Originally Posted By: JA
No argument from me! The question was about the base. 260-300m it's not worth arguing about.

FWIW, the snowfall records for Kutchan are here . Interesting stuff.

Great data. Taken at 'Station 47433 in Kutchan'. I wonder if that station is actually at the town level or somewhere in the hills around town coz those are massive snowfall amounts for town level.
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They do give the lat and long, I haven't got that fine a detail here, will need to get to it at home where I have google earth to search with.

 

I'm sure GN will know where the readings are taken ... wink

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