Season updates

[gerard 6]

Niseko is in. Seems carefully worded. I like it.

Originally Posted By: Niseko Now

.....There's been a lot of debate over the years about just how much snow Niseko receives especially as the only accurate snowfall records are only kept in Kutchan and not on the mountain itself. Kutchan is situated at only 176m though and is out on the plains receiving little of the orographic precipitation we get on the mountain. My best estimate over my years of observations is that up around 1000m on the mountain we receive at least 1.5 times the amount of snow recorded down in Kutchan. Kutchan averages around 12m of snowfall annually so I estimate that up high on the mountain the average snowfall is at least 18m and would easily exceed 20m in the bigger years....

[sanjo 2]

Impressive numbers indeed.

[Nisoko 6]

GN, perhaps you can help me I'm trying to remember which was the biggest year in recent ones. Was it 05/06?

[gerard 6]

Think that was the year of insane snowfalls all over Japan for the first half of the winter. That was the last time I was up at Niseko. Christmas/Newyears of that year. 2 meters already settled in the village, closer to 4 up high and snowing pretty much every day. I have pretty good memory for these sort of (useless) things.

[muikabochi 208]

I know it is a totally different area of course, but in Niigata that insance winter was 05/06 as can be seen here

 

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/gallery/index-snowy-japan.html

[gerard 6]

It was going off everywhere. We had planned our trip to Niseko but we could have skied on 2 or 3 meters by Christmas even in Hyogo. Not sure if there was any snow in Hakuba though. I think they were struggling that year.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

I like how the Niseko mag said between 15-20 meters of snow this year...seems like a huge difference that 5 meters of snow. Anyone else think so? No doubt Niseko gets a lot though!!

[Nisoko 6]

Not really.

 

Ask 10 different people and you'll get 10 different answers.

 

The resorts hardly give accurate official snow depth numbers throughout the season anyway. Everyone is taking a guess basically.

[Go Native 70]

Originally Posted By: Nisoko

GN, perhaps you can help me I'm trying to remember which was the biggest year in recent ones. Was it 05/06?

05/06 was huge early on establishing a big base in December and it was a cold winter and spring with a deep snowpack remaining right through the spring up high. 04/05 though actually received more snow. In 05/06 Kutchan received a little over 12m but in 04/05 we had in excess of 14m.

Originally Posted By: Creek Boy

I like how the Niseko mag said between 15-20 meters of snow this year...seems like a huge difference that 5 meters of snow. Anyone else think so? No doubt Niseko gets a lot though!!

Were they saying the average lies somewhere between those figures or that we received between 15-20m of snow this year? (I probably wrote the article anyway ) From the figures here on the Now reports Niseko got between around 15m at the base and over 18m up high this season. It was certainly close to an average year. It is a pity that the resort owners here do not see the need to install instrumentation for accurate measurements as I'm pretty sure if they installed a snow measuring device up high it would show convincingly that Niseko is without doubt one of the snowiest ski resorts on the planet. All the more amazing due to the low altitude of this resort. I don't think they can grasp at all the incredible marketing power the huge snowfalls here represent.
And I reckon it wouldn't be too far off the mark to say that Niseko receives more powder days than just about any other international resort out there, including some of the high altitude resorts in the US and Europe. There are possibly a few other spots in Japan that would be similar. Anyway put all this together and you have the main reason I live here

[Hokkaidough 4]

Quote:

It is a pity that the resort owners here do not see the need to install instrumentation for accurate measurements

Bizarre isn't it.
It can't be that expensive (can it?)

[Go Native 70]

If all 4 resort areas put in a bit plus all the businesses who benefit from international tourists here then the cost would be nothing spread out like that. The benefits of having accurate figures to market to the world though would be invaluable. Might even knock Baker off the top spot.

[TJ OZ 0]

Originally Posted By: ger

It was going off everywhere. We had planned our trip to Niseko but we could have skied on 2 or 3 meters by Christmas even in Hyogo. Not sure if there was any snow in Hakuba though. I think they were struggling that year.

Probably a bad quote for the amount of people that actually died from the amount of snowfalll that year throughout Nagano and Nigata. Estimates were 8 meters for December alone.

[Thundercat 60]

I remember that year very well as it was my introduction to boarding and my last year on skis. Hakuba was absolutely buried under snow. I was shocked at how quickly it accumulated (and I'm Canadian, eh )