Niseko Now: Friday 5th December 2014
- Dec 5, 2014
- 3 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 10cm
Snowfall at base this season 61cm
Posted on Friday 5th December 2014 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
It's snowing this morning still - nice snow for sure, but still not quite as much as we would all like.
But... movement has been detected!
Today will see the first ski lift of the season in action... just the one, over at Niseko Village. Yes, the Community Chair will be opening at 8:30am for the first official turns of the season with Final Fling, Shaky Knees and Next Stage (part) courses open. They are mentioning about the fact that there's still not much snow out there so lots of bushes and sasa sticking up. Caution needed. The lift will be open until 4pm today with a special 8 hour lift ticket which costs 2600 yen for adults and 2200 yen for children.
It seems that Niseko Village is the only one of the resorts that will be opening anything today, so if you want to hit first runs that's where you need to be!
This morning Niseko Grand Hirafu are reporting 30cm at base and 60cm at peak with temperatures ranging from -5 to -8 and winds from 1m/s-5m/s. Yesterday evening they were saying that there still was not enough snow to open and that an opening today was unlikely.
As for tomorrow? Well, we'll have to see about that. Tomorrow is the date when the Hanazono area also planned to join the party, so all of the resorts should be open. It's going to be 2 weeks since the original planned opening dates for two of the resorts, so they will be aching to get open - as we all are to get out there!
UPDATE AT 1:30PM
OK some good news! Niseko Grand Hirafu will be starting up the lifts tomorrow morning, Saturday 6th.
Lifts that will be moving:
-Ace Number 3 Pair lift
-Ace Family Pair
-Ace Number 2 Center Four (connecting)
-Hanazono Number 1 Quad
-Hanazono Number 2 Quad
-Hanazono Number 3 Quad
Courses that will be open:
-Center Course
-Family Course
-Yotei Sunset (Hanazono area)
-Silver Dream (Hanazono area)
Hirafu and Hanazono won't be linked up yet, not skiable anyway - connection between the two will be by shuttle bus if you so wish.
Niseko Annupuri have said that they don't have enough snow to be able to open tomorrow.
That's the news for now. I'll do another check and update tomorrow morning.
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Open resorts:
Niseko Village:
The Community Chair lift is operating from 8:30am on Friday 5th December
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Planned opening dates for the different resort areas on the mountain:
Niseko Grand Hirafu - will be part open from tomorrow
Niseko Annupuri Kokusai - will open as soon as there's enough snow
Niseko Village - Community Chair
Niseko Hanazono - Saturday 6th December
Niseko Now 2014-2015 season |
Data as of Friday 5th December 2014 Total snowfall at base so far 61cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 9 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 15cm (15th November and 4th December) November 2014 snowfall 30cm reported on 5 days December 2014 snowfall 31cm reported on 4 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.