Nozawa Now: Thursday 17th December 2020
- Dec 17, 2020
- 3 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano
New snowfall at base 56cm
Snowfall at base this season 114cm
Posted on Thursday 17th December 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.
The Nagasaka Gondola wasn't able to get going yesterday and it is going to be rested today too. This is as they deal with what seems to be a fallen tree along the line of the gondola and also, I just noticed, some kind of power outage. I'm sure the mad weather conditions we have been getting aren't helping fix those things up.
So there is a change in lift operations on the mountain for today as noted below. Basically the lower Hikage and Nagasaka areas are open today with four lifts operating. Top areas closed.
The better news is that... they are able to do that. That's because we have had tons of snow. Curiously the ski area isn't yet reporting from the lower areas (the area that is open today), but they are reporting a full 1m of snow up on Yamabiko since yesterday. Special lower priced lift tickets are on offer for today with this new make-shift operations set up. Hopefully we'll be back to top of the mountain action soon with the gondola back open.
And the untouched goodness on offer up there when they do open should be top class.
Having said that conditions should be pretty sweet down low too this morning as there is a lot of snow to play in.
What a great start we are being blessed with. (And what a contrast with last season!)
If you are looking for clearer weather and some sunshine, you might have to wait until around Tuesday or Wednesday. We got more snow to get before then.
On a different subject...
Have you checked out the SnowJapanHistory.com website yet? This new site, brought to you by the guy who started this website, provides a feast of interesting information on old ski areas around Japan that are no longer with us.
Did you know there used to be another small ski area within the boundaries of Nozawa Onsen Village? How does the idea of taking a train, then a ferry boat across the river and then walking up a hill to get to the one single ski lift sound?! That ski area was called Nanamaki.
Other stories that I have found particularly interesting are the Sapporo Olympic downhill courses on Mt Eniwa (a ‘ski area’ that only Olympians got to ski) and one that appeared on the site just yesterday - a small ski area called Jitsukiyama on the mountain behind Zenkoji Temple in central Nagano City.
At the time of this report 138 old ski areas are listed on there including a bunch in nearby Iiyama and Yamanouchi (Shiga Kogen). I highly recommend you take a look!
Fresh snowfall recorded by the resort (since yesterday morning):
- Yamabiko (1407m): 100cm
- Uenotaira (1230m): 90cm
- Hikage (660m): -cm (not reporting yet)
- Nagasaka (615m): -cm (not reporting yet)
- Karasawa (563m): -cm (not reporting yet)
Official snow depth numbers (reported by the ski area):
- Yamabiko (1407m): 175cm
- Uenotaira (1230m): 170cm
- Hikage (660m): -cm (not reporting yet)
- Nagasaka (615m): -cm (not reporting yet)
- Karasawa (563m): -cm (not reporting yet)
Planned operating lifts:
- Hikage Four lift
- Hikage Triple lift
- Nagasaka Four lift
- Nagasaka Triple lift
Courses currently open:
- Hikage
- Nagasaka
Nozawa Now 2020-2021 season |
Data as of Thursday 17th December 2020 Total snowfall at base 114cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 4 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 56cm (17th December) November 2020 snowfall 0cm December 2020 snowfall 114cm 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 Nozawa Onsen. 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.