Niseko Now: Thursday 11th December 2014
- Dec 11, 2014
- 3 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 2cm
Snowfall at base this season 171cm
Posted on Thursday 11th December 2014 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
Not much snow to report early this morning, just a few cm on the ground, but it's snowing quite heavily right now as I write this report just before 9am. It's actually relatively mild this morning (+2) but as the day moves on expect it to get colder and for that to continue tomorrow and Saturday. If the forecast is right, it's going to be a very cold and more importantly very snowy weekend. I'm looking forward to reporting some very nice numbers in the coming days.
The Niseko Annupuri resort has more open from today - joining the already open Jumbo Number 1 Quad lift is the Annupuri Gondola and the Jumbo Number 3 Pair lift, opening up more of that resort area of course. More details below. (Bad news with that is it's normal lift prices from today!)
Unfortunately at the time of writing strong winds are stopping the King Number 3 lift at Niseko Grand Hirafu and the Hanazono Number 3 lift at Niseko Hanazono from operating. We can only hope that this season there's not too much of the "strong winds stopping lifts" kind of news. I've said it before but if there's one thing about Niseko that I don't like...!
Night operations should be starting from Saturday night. Looking forward to that.
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Here's what is planned to be open this morning:
Niseko Grand Hirafu
Courses: Family Course, Alpen, Detour for Beginners, Green, Center, Kokutai, Kogen, Ni-Kabe, Jumbo, Parallel, Rinkan (lowe), Setsuzoku.
Lifts: Ace Family Lift, Ace Number 2 Center Four lift, Ace Number 3 lift, Hirafu Gondola, King Number 3 Triple lift, Swinging Monkey.
Niseko Hanazono
Courses: Stairway to Heaven, Silver Dream, Legend of Shinya, Yotei Sunset, Crystal Garden
Lifts: All 3 quad lifts operating
Niseko Village
Courses: Final Fling, Shaky Knees, Next Stage, Banzai, Cruiser, Don't Blink, beginners course from Gondola, Junkyard, Namara (part ungroomed), Jagaimo (ungroomed), Misoshiru (ungroomed)
Lifts: Niseko Gondola, Community Chair, Banzai Chair
Niseko Annupuri
Courses: Paradise, Family, Challenge, Marchen, Dynamic, Junior, Utopia, Shirakaba, Silver
Lifts: Annupuri Gondola, Jumbo Number 1 Quad, Jumbo Number 3 Pair
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Nighta is scheduled to open from Saturday 13th December. Just 2 more nights to go!
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Official snow depth numbers at the time of writing:
Grand Hirafu / Hanazono:
Top - 150cm
Base - 80cm
Niseko Village:
Top - 80cm
Base - 50cm
Annupuri:
Top - 130cm
Base - 90cm
Niseko Now 2014-2015 season |
Data as of Thursday 11th December 2014 Total snowfall at base so far 171cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 15 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 40cm (7th December) November 2014 snowfall 30cm reported on 5 days December 2014 snowfall 141cm reported on 10 days |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Kutchan/Niseko. 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.