Niseko Now: Friday 14th December 2018
- Dec 14, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 4, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 25cm
Snowfall at base this season 235cm
Posted on Friday 14th December 2018 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
I remember talking about blue skies and sunshine just yesterday morning. And indeed it was a lovely morning.
But get this... there's another 25cm of fresh snow on the ground. There's no faffing about this morning. And while it is due to continue through the day, as you can see from the webcam images below taken at around 7:45am there is currently a spell of some thinner clouds and even a bit of sun shining through in places. But as I write this 10 minutes later it's clouded over once again and it is still snowing. So somewhat changeable right now but I suspect the snow clouds will win out.
While this is all very exciting of course, let's never forget to take care out there. And congratulations to everyone who timed an early season trip just about now.
The report is a bit early this morning as I, er, want to go and wash my hair or maybe read a book.
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Hmm. With the snowy excitement this morning, I almost feel that I want to delay this bit of news...
I heard some interesting news coming in yesterday from a Japanese friend. I thought it might be of interest to readers of this report.
It seems that there was a town assembly meeting in Kutchan yesterday. In what was probably a very interesting and fun meeting, the wise assembly members decided that a 'lodging tax' is going to be introduced with a view to introducing it from November of next year. If I am understanding this correctly, what this means is that people staying in Kutchan accommodation will get taxed an additional 2% tax (ie. the tax rate will be 2% of the accommodation charges).
Apparently, the other such lodging taxes that exist in Tokyo and Kyoto are a small fixed rate, rather than a percentage, so this will be the first fixed-rate lodging tax in Japan. Hurray!
The revenue that this exciting new tax will generate will be used to ‘promote tourism and expand multi-lingual guidance services as well as barrier-free facilities’ and the town expects to raise over 300 million yen a year.
Kutchan is a small town, but of course it is host to an extremely large number of international visitors – and more than a few of them have more than a few pennies to spend. There is definitely a struggle to keep up with services and staffing shortage issues going on, from the stories I hear. So, let’s just hope that if and when this new tax is introduced it really will be used for the things it is meant to and that facilities in general can continue to ‘level up’.
I wonder if Niseko town will do the same? << That’s me just totally wondering to myself.
Anyway, let’s new tax!
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Niseko Avalanche Report
Mountain Base 6.00am: -6°, light winds, 20cm new snow. Moiwa 800m: -7°, light winds, 30cm new snowfall, no snowdrift development. Hirafu 1000m , -7°、30cm new snow, no snowdrift development. Coastal data: Benkei Cape: N11m/s. Kamui Cape: W8m/s, 1018hPa, wave 1.9m.
General avalanche risk is low and snow is fantastic today.
Only a short report today, the avalanche crew would like to take a day off today to enjoy the snow before the real winter starts.
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Ski resort operation information: Friday 14th December 2018
The below information is manually checked each morning and believed to be correct at time of report
Niseko Grand Hirafu
Part open
Official snow depth (reported by resort):
- Peak: 160cm
- Base: 80cm
Ski lifts operating:
- Ace Family quad (until 8:30pm)
- Ace Number 2 Center Four (until 8:20pm)
- Ace Number 3 pair (until 3:30pm)
- Hirafu Gondola (until 4:30pm)
- Holiday Number 1 Pair (until 4:30pm)
- King Number 3 quad (until 3:30pm)
- Swinging Monkey (until 3:00pm)
Niseko HANAZONO Resort
Mostly open
Official snow depth (reported by resort):
- Peak: 105cm
- Base: 94cm
Ski lifts operating:
- Hanazono Number 1 quad (until 3:30pm)
- Hanazono Number 2 quad (until 3:30pm)
- Hanazono Number 3 quad (until 3:00pm)
Niseko Grand Hirafu & Hanazono Courses:
- All courses apart from the below courses are now open
- Path to King
- Onsenzawa
- Large
- Konayuki
- Miharashi
- Dynamic
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Niseko Annupuri
Part open
Official snow depth (reported by resort):
- Peak: 120cm
- Base: 60cm
Ski lifts operating:
- Annupuri Gondola (until 3:15pm)
- Dream Number 1 quad (until 5:30pm)
- Jumbo Number 1 quad (until 8:30pm)
- Jumbo Number 3 pair (until 3:15pm)
Courses:
- Utopia
- Silver
- Shirakaba
- Paradise
- Family
- Junior
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Niseko Village
Part open
Official snow depth (reported by resort):
- Peak: 130cm
- Base: 90cm
Ski lifts operating:
- Niseko Gondola (until 3:00pm)
- Upper Village Gondola (until 8:00pm)
- Village Express (until 8:00pm)
- Community Chair (until 4:30pm)
- Banzai Chair (until 8:00pm)
Niseko Now 2018-2019 season |
Data as of Friday 14th December 2018 Total snowfall at base so far 235cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 19 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 25cm (23rd November and 14th December) November 2018 snowfall 84cm reported on 8 days December 2018 snowfall 151cm reported on 11 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.