Niseko Now: Wednesday 11th November 2020
- Nov 11, 2020
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 14cm
Snowfall at base this season 48cm
Posted on Wednesday 11th November 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
And to follow on from my report yesterday, there's more snow to report this morning.
I have measured 14cm outside, here in Hirafu.
Right now there is a fair amount of blue sky to see and a bit of sunshine too. Nice and cold too.
It will be interesting to see if the snow on upper areas of the mountain might remain over the forecast warmer period coming from tomorrow.
Whatever, this has certainly been a good few days of early season snowfall.
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Now that I am fully awake and ready to go for the winter, I thought I would put down a few pre-season thoughts.
First, I hope you and yours are keeping well.
What a year it has been. As the 2019-2020 season came to a premature end in April, we were all very much hoping that by November the coronavirus situation would be much less of a worry.
Over the summer months the number of confirmed cases reported here in Hokkaido were keeping low and steady, though over the last week or two the numbers have been rising once again (to close on 200 cases a day, mostly in Sapporo). I don’t really know how to interpret that other than hope we might be at the crest of this particular wave and the numbers will begin to settle down again but... who knows.
Everyone has their ‘2020’ story of course. I took some time to re-charge after the rush of winter and I have been able to explore some areas of Hokkaido. It is easy to do the social distancing thing here in the countryside. There have been a few days when I have been places and hardly seen another person. What a beautiful place this is.
So here we are, approaching the middle of November and just a few weeks away from the start of the ski season. It is always an exciting time of the year and the snow that we got early this week was great to see. In terms of snow, that definitely seems like a promising start.
After years of rapid growth and increasing numbers of people visiting Niseko from all over the world, this season is probably going to feel a bit (maybe very)... strange. Travel restrictions are preventing many of you from getting here, so that is undoubtedly going to create a different atmosphere.
Ski resorts here in Niseko plan to be opening along with various strategies to tackle the coronavirus issue. I haven’t delved deep yet, but it is mostly things like wearing face coverings, using hand sanitizers and limiting the number of people on lifts. That kind of thing.
Niseko Grand Hirafu is resting a bunch of lifts this season in what looks like a clear sign they expect fewer people than usual. Last I heard these are the rested lifts: Ace Pair Number 1 lift, Ace Pair Number 3 lift, Ace Pair Number 4 lift, King Pair Number 1 lift and King Quad Number 2 lift.
These lifts not operating should not really affect skiable terrain and the other lifts should be moving as normal. Hirafu has changed their initial planned opening date from 21st November to 5th December, and night skiing will be until 8:00pm.
Niseko Annupuri plans to be the first ski area to open on Saturday 28th November which means we are now just over two weeks away.
I’ll post further news in upcoming reports.
While it is of course difficult to avoid coronavirus, I intend to keep mention of it to a minimum in my reports. There is enough news out there if you want it and I am guessing that most of you are not coming to the Niseko Now reports to read about coronavirus!
Having said that, the issue will surely shape the season in some respects, so it will be part of the conversation from time to time.
But don’t worry, I plan to be as genki as I have always tried to be.
That is the cunning plan anyway. Let's see how things go.
One important thing that remains the same. I love doing these reports and of course love Niseko. In these reports I will tell you exactly what I see and observe. I’ll get excited when there’s genuinely stuff to be excited about and I won't hide any uncomfortable truths. It's not about being 'positive' or 'negative' - it's simply about telling you what is going on.
And of course, cheese will be kept in the fridge at all times.
(I might mention toast, though.)
It is unfortunate that people who really want to be here are unable to come at this time, but I hope that my reports might help give you a feeling of being connected as we all look forward to the time when things can get back to being more normal.
Anyway, it is a beautiful morning, and it looks like we should be enjoying some fine weather over the next few days.
I’ll be back soon.
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Planned opening dates:
Niseko Annupuri: Saturday 28th November 2020
Niseko Grand Hirafu: Saturday 5th December 2020
Niseko Hanazono: Saturday 5th December 2020
Niseko Village: Tuesday 1st December 2020
Niseko Now 2020-2021 season |
Data as of Wednesday 11th November 2020 Total snowfall at base so far 48cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 3 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 32cm (10th November) November 2020 snowfall 48cm reported on 3 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.