Niseko Now: Friday 26th February 2016
- Feb 26, 2016
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 18cm
Snowfall at base this season 854cm
Posted on Friday 26th February 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
Hello and good morning once again from Niseko. The days are just whizzing by. Still, by my reckoning I still have over 70 Niseko Now reports to go for this season!
And it is a happy report that I am able to post this morning, with 18cm of fresh snow measured just a few moments ago here at Hirafu base. Expect more on the mountain of course and I would expect this will be a very fine overnight refresh. Getting up for first tracks will definitely have been worth it this morning. There are lots of people lining up for those first lifts, despite the actually quite heavy snow falling at the moment. I doubt any of them are complaining! Might be limited visibility up on the mountain though this morning. Do take care.
So yes, it's snowing quite heavily as I write this though perhaps it will be easing off this morning. Then snow showers for most days into mid-week next week. I feel the forecast is showing less potential snow than it was showing yesterday, but still we should be enjoying regular fresh.
Not that these numbers matter that much really, but the official snow depth on the upper slopes of Niseko Grand Hirafu is today up to 395cm. I wonder if we can break through the 4m barrier!
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Interesting news about a development for next season.
It looks like the King Number 3 lift at Niseko Grand Hirafu is going to be transforming (as if by magic) into a high speed quad lift, giving it an increased capacity of 600 people an hour. The lift will also be extended (lower part) by about 170m as well to make it all easier and smoother.
The fancy new name of the lift will be 'King Number 3 quad lift'.
In order to make these changes, the current King Number 3 and King Number 4 lifts will be closing from 4th April and it looks like there'll be some associated course area closings as well though that seems unclear at the moment.
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In just one month, the new ‘Hokkaido Shinkansen’ bullet train line will begin operations, marking the first time that a bullet train comes up into Hokkaido.
The current Tohoku Shinkansen line currently stretches 675km from Tokyo Station to Shin Aomori Station in Aomori city, Aomori Prefecture.
Construction on the new Hokkaido Shinkansen line started in 2005 and the first part of the new line from Shin Aomori Station to Shin Hakodate Hokuto Station (in Hakodate city) will open on 26th March 2016.
When finished the Hokkaido Shinkansen line will eventually reach Sapporo city with a planned station close to us here in Kutchan. That is quite a way off yet though with the final stretch – including the planned Kutchan stop – not due until 2030.
Once the line is completely open, it is estimated that the journey from Tokyo to Sapporo will be about 5 hours and of course less to Kutchan (4 hours 35 minutes I heard).
It will be interesting to see how a Shinkansen station (not famous for being the most beautiful of buildings) fits into the surroundings here in Kutchan, and also how much of a difference it will make for people considering visiting. It will certainly be a viable and convenient alternative to taking a plane, but no doubt how much it eventually costs – and how it compares with cheap flights – will be a big factor.
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Official resort snow depths as of Friday 26th February 2016:
Niseko Grand Hirafu & Hanazono
Top - 395cm
Base - 170cm
Niseko Village
Top - 350cm
Base - 180cm
Niseko Annupuri
Top - 380cm
Base - 170cm
Niseko Now 2015-2016 season |
Data as of Friday 26th February 2016 Total snowfall at base so far 854cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 68 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 38cm (17th February) November 2015 snowfall 61cm reported on 4 days December 2015 snowfall 244cm reported on 17 days January 2016 snowfall 303cm reported on 26 days February 2016 snowfall 246cm reported on 21 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.