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Hakuba Now: Thursday 14th December 2017

  • Dec 14, 2017
  • 3 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Hakuba region of Nagano


New snowfall at base 5cm
Snowfall at base this season 120cm

Posted on Thursday 14th December 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Hakuba Now report can be found here.


Early seasons are exciting - but difficult and time consuming for yours truly... there is a lot of information to check, gather and put together. Once the season gets going with all of the resorts open, things start to get a bit easier. But anyway, apologies if some reports are a little later than others. I'm not sleeping in, honest! The excitement keeps me going. And an early season with decent snowfall and really good conditions definitely helps a lot!


OK so onto this morning.


Well, yesterday. Snow during the day on mountain though not really much to report from base. 47 were saying they got 15cm on upper areas though.


Here's how much fresh snow the resorts are reporting this morning:


Hakuba 47: 5-10cm on the official site, 10-15cm being mentioned on FB

Hakuba Goryu: up to 10cm


I'm looking forward to seeing the numbers that Hakuba Cortina start reporting once they open on Saturday.


Interesting that today we're not seeing the large amounts of snow that some other nearby regions are getting. (Always interesting to see the snowfall hauls from the regions).


In resort news:


A few more course areas are open at Tsugaike this morning - namely, Shirakaba and 'Upper course through the forest' (catchy!)


At Happo-one the Riesen quad lift is due to start moving this morning from 10:30am, along with part of the Riesen Slalom Course being available. Though it seems the Alpen quad is on hold at the time of writing due to strong winds on mountain.


I think that's it for the moment. Expect somewhat clearer skies from later on today and maybe tomorrow too. More snow due over the weekend.


Hakuba Happo-one


Operating lifts:

- Gondola Adam

- Panorama pair lift

- Alpen quad lift

- Hakuba Riesen quad lift

- Kurobishi Number 2 quad lift

- Skyline Number 2 pair lift

- Kokusai Number 1 pair lift

- Kokusai Number 3 pair lift


Courses open:

- Panorama area

- Usagidaira area

- Kurobishi area

- Skyline area

- Riesen slalom (part)


Official snow depth:

- Kurobishi: 170cm

- Usagidaira: 130cm


Hakuba Goryu


Operating lifts:

- Goryu Telecabin (gondola)

- Alps Number 1 pair lift

- Alps Number 3 pair lift

- Toomi Sky Four lift

- Milky Four lift

- Number 6 pair lift


Courses open:

- Panorama

- Grand Prix

- Technical

- Super

- Champion

- Champion Expert

- Woody

- Toomi

- Soft Cream

- Powder Snow


Official snow depth:

- Top: 180cm

- Toomi: 60cm

- Iimori: 30cm


Hakuba 47


Operating lifts:

- Line 8 Gondola

- Line AB pair lift

- Line C quad lift

- Line E high speed pair lift


Courses open:

- All main courses are open

- Tree Riding Zone not open yet


Official snow depth:

- Top: 195cm

- Base: 55cm


Tsugaike Kogen


Operating lifts

- EVE Gondola

- Tsuga Number 2 pair lift

- Han-no-ki high speed pair lift


Courses open:

- Tsuga-no-mori

- Han-kou

- Han-no-ki

- Upper course through forest

- Shirakaba


Official snow depth:

- Tsuga-no-mori: 171cm

- Han-no-ki: 171cm



Hakuba Now 2017-2018 season

Data as of Thursday 14th December 2017 Total snowfall at base so far 120cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 13 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 23cm (21st November) November 2017 snowfall 47cm reported on 5 days December 2017 snowfall 73cm reported on 8 days



All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Hakuba. The 'new snowfall' number represents the amount of snow measured since the previous report. All opinions are those of the individual reporters. Information regarding ski area operations is manually checked every morning and is believed to be correct at the time of the report.


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