Niseko Now: Monday 20th February 2017
- Feb 20, 2017
- 6 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 15cm
Snowfall at base this season 545cm
Posted on Monday 20th February 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
Yey! There's more fresh snow this morning with another good 15cm on the ground. It's cold and the snow looks nice and dry.
Along with a handful of other people (!), I enjoyed playing in the fresh conditions yesterday and with this new top-up, I intend to do more of the same today.
The light snow that the resorts are reporting falling pre-toast this morning has eased off now and it actually looks like it is going to be a clear and fine day. Things are calm and lifts should be opening as normal this morning.
Anyway, I'm going to get out onto the lifts early this morning. Maybe see some of you. Take care out there.
Here's something I prepared earlier...
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An answer to a question:
“If you say 20cm of fresh snow has fallen in your report, how come the snow depth at the resorts does not increase by a corresponding 20cm”?
There’s a few reasons for that. I’ll try to explain the best I can. Firstly, the two numbers are not connected – in my reports I am reporting fresh snowfall at base each morning, while the ski resorts have their own method of measuring their snow depth base. And different ski resorts do that in different places etc.
Snow also compacts, both under the weight of grooming machines, skiers, snowboarders - and also under its own weight. The prevailing weather conditions will have an impact on how that is happening too. The bottom section of the snow base is not going to be light and fluffy like the fresh snow that fell overnight. And can you imagine how tall those ski lift towers would have to be if snow just continued to pile up during a season and not compact?
Anyway, I hope that goes a little way to explaining it. No doubt some other folk would be able to give a much clearer and more scientific explanation of this kind of thing. (If you are one of those folk and reading this, please do feel free to contact me and I may share it up here).
A response to some comments that have been sent in:
Note: some words may have been slightly altered for effect (…though not this first one):
"Your reports are completely useless. They need to be posted before 7:30am to be of any use"
>> Sorry.
"You under-report the snowfall. It’s outrageous! I was there and there was a full 2cm more than you reported!!!!"
>> Sorry.
"You over-report the snowfall. It’s outrageous! I was there and there was a massive 2cm less than you reported!!!!"
>> Sorry.
"Your reports are too ‘negative’!!"
>> Sorry.
"Your reports are too ‘positive’!!"
>> Sorry.
As you can see, there are some real charming folk out there!
I think either myself or SnowJapan (in the general messages that they posted on these reports) have covered all of these issues in the reports so far this season, and so I won’t go into details again. I’ll just add a few bullet points:
** I don’t under-report or over-report. I report what I see with my own eyes and measure, no sugar added or taken away. It may be slightly different from what someone else sees nearby - and indeed we might both be right.
** I can’t post before 7:30am because a) there is not enough information to make a full report at that time, and b) on some days I might still be sleeping at that time. Or eating some toast. I like toast.
** If you are in Niseko and planning to ski, I highly recommend looking out of the window early morning to see what the weather is doing and how much snow has fallen where you are. (Make sure you do it before 7:30am!)
** Knowing full well that people have different expectations and different points of reference, I generally try to avoid trying to describe snow conditions in detail all the time. When I do talk about snow conditions, it is mostly when conditions are clearly excellent or clearly rubbish.
** I avoid cheesy marketing words, loaded adjectives in capital letters and the constant ‘everything is perfect’ descriptions on purpose. Because they're often an exaggeration and sometimes worse. And often horribly cringeworthy. You’ll be able to tell when I’m genuinely excited by conditions; and when I am, you’ll know that my excitement is worthy. (I may however say 'yey' and 'hurray' at times, sorry).
I’m curious why some of these seemingly very angry people still read these reports. Personally, if I don’t like something, I tend to avoid it. So if you don’t like my/our reports, please just don’t read them. I’m fine with that, and I’m sure SnowJapan will be fine with it too – save them some bandwidth! They may even give you a full refund of any monies paid if you ask them; they’re jolly reasonable folk. ;)
To all our friends - don’t worry folks, I am posting the above in a very light-hearted frame of mind and not taking it all too seriously. It can of course be disheartening to hear some of these comments when you are busy putting in the effort day after day (as you might reasonably expect).
I just sometimes wonder how we got to the sad point where people get to feel so entitled and/or just seem to think it’s ok to throw any semblance of decency and manners out of the window when it comes to ‘internet stuff’.
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Niseko Avalanche Report:
Mountain base: -11°, 15cm new snow. Moiwa 800m: -9.1°, E1m/s, 20cm new snow, no snowdrift development. Annupuri 1150m, -14°, NE7m/s, 25cm new snow. Hirafu 1250m, -12°, E5m/s, 20cm new snow. Coastal data: Kamui Cape:W2m/s, 1007hPa, wave 1.2m.
The barometric pressure gradient is shallow, the mountain is not wind effected and trees are covered with light crystal snow. From observation the general avalanche risk is low, however on sharp steep slopes, a double layer slab on top of the 17 Feb layer will easily fracture. Take care. All peak gates are expected to open. Please listen to the patrols advice and be prepared before going out of bounds. Do not forget, once you pass through the gates the winter mountain is un-managed and there is many hidden dangers out there.
Yesterday, Backbowl West ridge around 800m, a small avalanche occurred. This could also happen today, be aware. The halfpipes in the bottom of creeks are fun to ride but its wise not to go in them when its windy or snowing – these can be avalanche paths.
More people are getting lost in Anbetsu area out of Gate 10. In Niseko everybody is allowed to ride out of bounds, but as more and more inexperienced people are venturing out of the gates, the patrols advice before leaving to everyone is also becoming more important. In an effort to reduce the number of accidents on the mountain , we all need to examine our current safety systems to make sure we are doing best job we can. Snow is good today.
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Official resort snow depths as of Monday 20th February 2017:
Niseko Grand Hirafu & Hanazono
Top - 340cm
Base - 140cm
Niseko Village
Top - 300cm
Base - 140cm
Niseko Annupuri
Top - 315cm
Base - 140cm
Niseko Now 2016-2017 season |
Data as of Monday 20th February 2017 Total snowfall at base so far 545cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 66 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 36cm (16th December) November 2016 snowfall 110cm reported on 14 days December 2016 snowfall 181cm reported on 22 days January 2017 snowfall 152cm reported on 18 days February 2017 snowfall 102cm reported on 12 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.