Niseko Now: Friday 5th January 2018
- Jan 5, 2018
- 7 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Niseko region of Hokkaido
New snowfall at base 1cm
Snowfall at base this season 601cm
Posted on Friday 5th January 2018 This is an archived report. The latest Niseko Now report can be found here
Hello and good morning from Niseko.
Just a dusting of snow this morning and very light snow is falling as I write this. It's not the kind of snowfall that is going to build up into numbers for my report though. The forecast for the day is generally cloudy with this light snow on and off.
All lifts around the resorts (apart from that lazy Country Road Chair at Niseko Village) are go this morning and peak gates should be opening.
I haven't been able to report much fresh snowfall over the last six reports (here at base of course; more higher up). I enjoyed some fine snow conditions yesterday, and had a good chat on the lifts with some folk who are visiting from Hawaii. They noted how the snow was so much better than what they get back home!
Being the mightily popular place that Niseko is with a lot of folk out there, we really need that regular fresh snowfall to fill in all the quickly made tracks. So I feel we could really do with some good old fresh dumpage to freshen things up mountain wide. I'm greedy like that. We can perhaps expect some light snow during the day today and tomorrow, but there's more snow potential lined up there on the forecasts from later on in the day on Monday through Wednesday.
And now, it's time for a message that is being posted on all of the daily reports this morning.
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Your questions answered!
Why don’t your daily reports appear earlier?
* Please note: this is a re-worked and updated version of a message that was posted during last season.
To answer this question properly, it is important that everyone understands that SnowJapan is not a ski resort operator. Our daily reports are not official ski resort reports. We are an independent website. Our daily reports are not commissioned by anyone and no business influences the content of our reports. (In fact, some businesses do not like our reports - especially when it is raining, and we say so - but that’s a different story). Data within the report does not get updated automatically - we do a lot of manual checking ourselves every morning.
If we did own and operate a ski resort, we would make it a high priority to post snow reports as early as possible each morning. We would report how much new snow has fallen on the upper slopes and base, weather conditions, lift operations and snow depth. We would also have multiple and meaningful webcams pointing out to locations around the resort. And we’d make sure that those webcams were backed up with adequate bandwidth to keep them working properly. We think it is probably reasonable to think that ski resorts might ideally be doing the above things for their customers.
But... as I said, we do not own or operate a ski resort.
The fact is, a fair number of Japanese ski resorts only post their morning information updates after 8am - and in some cases, it is actually (much) later than that.
Our daily reports are generally a mix of observed snowfall data, observed weather conditions, personal comments about what is going on - as well as information/data that has been manually checked from official ski resort sources. This is all in the interest of creating interesting and as-detailed-as-possible reports.
If we posted our daily reports much earlier than we currently do (for example at 7am as someone suggested) reports would be missing what we consider to be important information. For example, we would often not be able to include things like how much fresh snow the ski resorts are reporting, or news of any ski lift disruption at the start of the day. Things like that.
Rather than simply being a very early morning report mainly for the benefit of people who are going to be queuing for the first ski lift of the day, we like to think of the SnowJapan daily reports more as a season-long ongoing commentary,
The reality is of course that people who are lucky enough to already be at a ski resort and preparing to hit the first lifts of the day can get a good idea of weather conditions by taking a look outside the window when they get up, asking accommodation staff and/or checking out official resort sites etc.
If we posted our daily reports mostly for the benefit of those first lift people - who very likely only account for a very small percentage of the total number of people reading the reports - they would not be as good or detailed as they are.
So, bottom line, we strongly feel that our way of doing things makes for better all-round reports.
One more very important thing.
There’s also the people who write the reports and their circumstances to consider. There is of course human effort involved in creating the reports. In particular the reports that cover wider areas - for example Niseko, Hakuba, Yuzawa - take quite a bit of time to put together every morning. Checking information, updating data, writing the report, checking…
The people who are doing this are not ski resort employees doing this as part of their job.
They probably need some coffee before posting. (Toast in some cases).
They may need to dig themselves out of their home if it is snowing heavily.
And they may need to see to any number of circumstances that life throws at them on any given morning.
So please keep all that in mind.
We aim to get the reports online as early as we can on every morning throughout the winter season. But there may be times when the perfect plan is not possible.
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There are many people new to SnowJapan using the site again this season and we are experiencing some very heavy traffic. People from all over the world are using the site. That is of course a really great thing and we warmly welcome everyone who is new to SnowJapan; as well as old friends. Thanks for visiting!
We are aware that we do some things in our own unique way, and we kind of like that. You’ll probably get used to it if you stick around.
If you wish to send us any comments, you can do so here. But please be aware that we are not able to answer specific questions about ski resorts, travel, accommodation and the like. That would be a full time job in itself!
Thank you for reading and all the best for the New Year.
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Niseko Avalanche Report:
Niseko base 6am: -4℃, light dust, clam. Moiwa800m: -6.8℃, W4.4m/s, light snow with moderate snowdrifts. Annupuri1150m: NW15m/s, 10cm snowfall and moderate snowdrifts. Hirafy1250m: -11℃, mild wind, 10cm snowfall. Coastal data: Benkei cape NW9m/s, Kamui cape WSW10m/s, 1014hPa.
A moderate NW wind is prevailing in higher elevation under a typical winter pressure distribution. A fair amount of new snow, 20cm, has deposited in leeward valleys and trees. No notable weakness has been observed in the snowpack. The overall avalanche risk is relatively low. Peak gates will open from the morning. Be prepared for backcountry touring and ask information from the ski patrol before stepping out of the gates. Ducking ropes is severely punished in Niseko.
Wearing helmets and avalanche beacons are not mandatory, however is strongly recommended. It may save not only your life but others too. There are many hazards present in winter mountains. Never over-estimate your equipment or skills, always be humble, precautious and make conservative decisions in the mountains. Do not traverse across knolls and under cornices. It is common sense to avoid those terrains in order to avoid triggering avalanches. One slide could bury a lot of people skiing below.
The anemometer (aka the zero fighter) near gate 10 at Moiwa is almost making a belly landing with the increasing snowpack. Please don’t mess around with it as it’s recording precious and necessary data. The wind has stayed relatively light this season, resulting in an unusual development of snowdrifts. The avalanche forecast in Niseko is based on studying the snowfall transition as well as snowdrifts developments.
New snow is a bit shallow, but good quality. Beware of sudden weather changes and low visibility. Have a great day.
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Friday 5th January 2018
Resort specific information (operations subject to change):
Niseko Grand Hirafu & Niseko HANAZONO Resort
Lifts scheduled to be operating:
- All lifts are operating
Official snow depth:
- Top: 320cm
- Base: 140cm
Niseko Annupuri Kokusai
Lifts scheduled to be operating:
- All lifts are operating
Official snow depth:
- Top: 250cm
- Base: 140cm
Niseko Village
Lifts scheduled to be operating:
- All lifts except Country Road Chair are operating
Official snow depth:
- Top: 250cm
- Base: 160cm
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Floodlit 'nighta' skiing:
Night skiing is planned for every evening at the Niseko Grand Hirafu, Niseko Village and Niseko Annupuri areas. There is no nighta at the Niseko HANAZONO area. Ski lifts that are scheduled to be operating for nighta are noted below (subject to change):
* Niseko Grand Hirafu - Ace Family quad, Ace Number 2 quad, Hirafu Gondola, Holiday Number 1 pair
* Niseko Annupuri - Jumbo Number 1 quad lift
* Niseko Village - Village Express, Upper Village Gondola, Community Chair, Banzai Chair
Niseko Now 2017-2018 season |
Data as of Friday 5th January 2018 Total snowfall at base so far 601cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 41 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 38cm (21st December) November 2017 snowfall 188cm reported on 11 days December 2017 snowfall 406cm reported on 27 days January 2018 snowfall 7cm 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.