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Nozawa Now: Friday 6th January 2017

  • Jan 6, 2017
  • 3 min read

Updated: Nov 9, 2025

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


New snowfall at base 7cm
Snowfall at base this season 171cm

Posted on Friday 6th January 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.


Good morning from here in Nozawa.


It is a cold start to the day and a cloudy start as well. Lots of clouds hanging on but the forecasts tell us to expect clearer skies (to some extent) by the end of the day today - though it should remain cold.


Snow continued to fall during the day and into the evening yesterday and since the morning report the resort is reporting 23cm of snowfall on the top Yamabiko area, so conditions should be very good up there. Less accumulating on lower levels, so I would say Uenotaira and Yamabiko are the places to head to.


Tomorrow sunshine is forecast and it will likely warm up a slightly, venturing into low positive numbers in the afternoon.


After that, the next snowfall is still due around Monday and we need to be prepared for the chance of some rain on that day before the snow arrives; though it will probably be straight to snow higher up on the mountain. It's looking quite promising though is Monday night and Tuesday so that will be something to look forward to.


Monday 9th January is a national holiday in Japan and for the long weekend (Saturday through Monday) the lifts will be opening 30 minutes earlier than usual - base lifts at 8am and gondolas from 8:10am.


Lifts that are planned to be operating:

All lifts appear to be operating except for:

- Challenge pair

- Utopia pair

- Kandahar pair


Most courses at Nozawa Onsen are now open. Courses not open are:

- Skyline (lower part)

- Kurokura

- Grandprix

- Jumping

- Hachiman

- Mukobayashi

- Kandahar East

- Kandahar West

- Usagi


Official snow depths:

- Yamabiko: 140cm

- Uenotaira: 105cm

- Hikage: 40cm

- Nagasaka: 30cm

- Karasawa: 20cm


Fresh snow reported by resort since yesterday morning:

- Yamabiko: 23cm

- Uenotaira: 11cm

- Hikage: 8cm

- Nagasaka: 8cm

- Karasawa: 5cm



Nozawa Now 2016-2017 season

Data as of Friday 6th January 2017 Total snowfall at base 171cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 18 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 42cm (30th December) November 2016 snowfall 2cm reported on 2 days December 2016 snowfall 161cm reported on 14 days January 2017 snowfall 8cm reported on 2 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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