Nozawa Now: Sunday 7th January 2024
- Jan 7, 2024
- 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 118cm
Posted on Sunday 7th January 2024 This is an archived report. The latest Nozawa Now report can be found here.
This morning the ski area is reporting 7cm and 18cm of fresh snow from upper areas (sounds a lot); none from down below early on but there is a bit. But, it is just a bit... a few cm in places.
By this time tomorrow there should be more exciting news! Heavy snow still expected tonight.
Someone emailed me/SnowJapan yesterday asking for 'us' to open up more ski lifts to cope with the many people around. As much as SnowJapan has tried to make it clear over the years (please read this), some people still seem to think that this website is an extension of a ski area (or all ski areas in Japan?!... or something).
SnowJapan does not own or operate any ski area, including Nozawa Onsen. It is not a part of any ski area's operation. It is not publishing these daily reports on behalf of the ski area. It is not, in any way, a representative of the ski area. So, alas, we have no control over the operation of ski lifts at Nozawa Onsen!
That said, the person had a point about it being crowded. It is a traditionally very busy weekend on the calendar (with Monday being a national holiday). We usually expect the whole mountain to be open by now. But unfortunately, there's just not enough snow for that to happen yet. I am not privy to ski area operation details and all that is involved in decision-making. However, I would guess they would very much like to open up more, but they just can't, presumably for safety reasons. I can't imagine they are holding back on opening runs if it was viable.
Snow is the solution, and hopefully, we will have more of it soon.
Fresh snowfall since yesterday morning (reported by the ski area):
Yamabiko: 6cm
Uenotaira: 18cm
Lower areas: 0cm
Official snow depth numbers (reported by the ski area):
Yamabiko: 90cm
Uenotaira: 90cm
Hikage: 30cm
Nagasaka: 10cm
Karasawa: 5cm
Lifts operating:
Nagasaka Gondola
Hikage Gondola
Yamabiko Four lift
Yamabiko Number 2 Four quad lift
Skyline connecting pair lift
Uenotaira quad lift
Paradise quad lift
Hikage triple lift
Nagasaka triple lift
Nagasaka gondola link lift
Yu Road
Courses available:
Yamabiko A-E
Kokenashi A/B
Uenotaira (restrictions)
Paradise
Kumataka
Kitsune
Top areas of the ski area are open.
You need to get a gondola back down to base from the top area.
A few base areas are also part open.
Nozawa Now 2023-2024 season |
Data as of Sunday 7th January 2024 Total snowfall at base 118cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 14 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 64cm (23rd December) November 2023 snowfall 21cm reported on 2 days December 2023 snowfall 93cm reported on 10 days January 2024 snowfall 4cm 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.