Yuzawa Now: Friday 19th December 2014
- Dec 19, 2014
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 50cm
Snowfall at base this season 460cm
Posted on Friday 19th December 2014 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
Hello from Yuzawa and for once it's not snowing. Locals breath a sigh of relief as they continue to dig themselves out of their houses and find their cars under all of the snow. I didn't move the snow from my car yesterday and I think I can just about make it out under a huge blob of marshmallow outside my house.
Yesterday while it snowed for most of the day once again it wasn't quite as full on as it was the previous day. Still, another 40-50cm or so I would say.
Kagura report 80cm since yesterday.
For the moment it is mostly cloudy and overcast over the town area but quite bright. I can see that down in the Naeba area there's some blue sky and the sun seems to be shining down on the lower slopes of the resort. And there's just now some blue sky visible from here in town as well. Perhaps it will clear up today here too?
More resorts opening for the first time this morning. Or should I say 'pre-open' with some, which kind of seems to mean 'open a bit'. Or maybe even 'part open'. Sounds like an event though! Though I do see that at Kandatsu Kogen this morning... it's free! Yes, a full day of free skiing on offer over there which can't be bad. It's good to see Kandatsu Kogen back after a year with the lifts taking a rest. I think it was a bit of a shock for Kandatsu not to be open. But anyway, back to normal now.
And more resorts opening tomorrow as well as can be seen in the list below. In fact, come tomorrow there'll only be a few places left to get open for the season (one of those being the famous Mt Granview).
Just looking round for information and as expected from tomorrow more lifts and courses will be open. Maiko Snow Resort, for example, will have all of the top Okusoeji area open and also the Nagamine area with part of the Maiko area... basically most of the resort.
I can't see much reason why resorts that are open at at least close to fully open from tomorrow and it would surprise me if places continued to hold back. There's enough snow!
Tomorrow it will warm up slightly - highs as high as 8 degrees in town? Rain in the evening? Nooooo! If we get that rain lets hope it quickly turns into snow - which is what is forecast to happen. Wouldn't want to spoil all of this lovely fluffy light snow that we have.
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Resorts currently open:
* Apologies - at the time of writing this report it is proving difficult to confirm full details for the resorts that are opening for the first time this morning
Kagura - fully open
Naeba - part open
Iwappara - part open, 2 central area lifts operating
Joetsu Kokusai - part open, 5 lifts operating
Maiko Snow Resort - part open, top Okusoeji area, Gondola and 2 Okusoeji lifts operating
Ishiuchi Maruyama - lots open
Muikamachi Ski Resort
Yuzawa Nakazato
Yuzawa Kogen
Yuzawa Park
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Official snow depths:
GALA Yuzawa:
N/A
Ishiuchi Maruyama:
250cm
Iwappara:
205cm
Joetsu Kokusai:
180cm
Kagura:
230cm
Kandatsu Kogen:
200cm
Maiko Snow Resort:
200cm
Naeba:
140cm
NASPA Ski Garden:
190cm (opens tomorrow)
Yuzawa Kogen:
N/A
Yuzawa Nakazato:
N/A
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Planned opening dates for resorts in Yuzawa Town and Minamiuonuma City (by date):
Saturday 20th December:
Chateau Shiozawa
GALA Yuzawa
Ipponsugi
Kandatsu Kogen
Ludens Yuzawa
Nakazato Snow Wood
Muimamachi Hakkaisan
NASPA Ski Garden
Yuzawa Kogen (Nunoba area)
Tuesday 23rd December:
Itsukamachi
Thursday 25th December:
Hakkaisanroku
Saturday 27th December:
Ishiuchi Hanaoka
Late December
Mt Granview
Yuzawa Now 2014-2015 season |
Data as of Friday 19th December 2014 Total snowfall at base so far 460cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 10 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 100cm (15th December) November 2014 snowfall 0cm December 2014 snowfall 460cm 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 Yuzawa. 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.