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Nozawa Now: Sunday 25th December 2016

  • Dec 25, 2016
  • 3 min read

Independent snow and weather reporting from the Nozawa Onsen region of Nagano


New snowfall at base 2cm
Snowfall at base this season 89cm

Posted on Sunday 25th December 2016 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.


Good morning from Nozawa. Happy Christmas!


This morning there's some lovely blue sky views to be enjoyed on the upper section of the mountain (so the webcams show me) but here at base as I write my report it's foggy and you can't see much of anything at all. I would expect that bank of cloud to clear fairly sharpish this morning and leave us with a fine day.


This morning Nozawa Onsen is reporting 5cm of snow on the upper slopes since yesterday evening and adding that to what fell during the day yesterday brings the additional snow up to just over 10cm at higher elevations and up to 4cm on the base areas. Not as much as we would have liked of course, but a fresh supply all the same.


I just spotted Santa strapping some skis on and heading up to the lifts, so he's apparently happy with the conditions.


The resort has opened up the Rinkan, Challenge and Hikage course areas appear to be open once again so you can now ski back down to base but be aware that snow is very thin on the ground in lower areas. Not sure I'd be taking my new gear out to ride there just yet. There seems to be some conflicting info from official sources this morning about exactly what is open, so I suggest checking with the resort themselves for the latest if you need that. Personally, I'd just be heading up to the upper areas which are all open... best place to be!


The forecast is looking quite promising for around Tuesday-Wednesday and then later in the week as well. Still a chance of rain before snow at lower elevations on Tuesday but that should hopefully quickly be turning into snowfall.


Lifts that are planned to be operating:

All lifts appear to be operating except for:

- Hikage quad

- Kandahar pair

- Nagasaka quad

- Nagasaka pair

- Karasawa pair


Courses that are planned to be open:

- Yamabiko A course

- Yamabiko B course

- Yamabiko C course

- Yamabiko D course

- Yamabiko E course

- Kokenashi course

- Uenotaira course

- Paradise course

- Paradise link

- Mizunashi A

- Mizunashi B

- Bunabayashi course

- Yunomine A course

- Yunomine B course

- Rinkan course

- Challenge course

- Hikage

- Nagasaka connecting


Official snow depths:

- Yamabiko: 95cm

- Uenotaira: 55cm

- Hikage: 25cm

- Nagasaka: 25cm

- Karasawa: 10cm


Fresh snow reported by resort since yesterday morning:

- Yamabiko: 11cm

- Uenotaira: 10cm

- Hikage: 4cm

- Nagasaka: 4cm

- Karasawa: 0cm



Nozawa Now 2016-2017 season

Data as of Sunday 25th December 2016 Total snowfall at base 89cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 12 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 24cm (11th December) November 2016 snowfall 2cm reported on 2 days December 2016 snowfall 87cm reported on 10 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.


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