Yuzawa Now: Saturday 19th December 2020
- Dec 19, 2020
- 4 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Yuzawa & Minamiuonuma region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 32cm
Snowfall at base this seas 285cm
Posted on Saturday 19th December 2020 This is an archived report. The latest Yuzawa Now report can be found here.
After the relentless snow of the previous few days, it was good to be able to have a kind of break from it yesterday. Everyone was busy with lots to do before the next snow started. We could also enjoy a period of beautiful blue skies and sunshine in the late morning yesterday. The winter mountains look amazing.
Temperatures rose to around 2C around mid-day and by late afternoon it was generally cloudy once again. (There were even reportedly a few spots of rain in places as evening approached).
Interesting to see that in the place where 38cm was measured at 9am yesterday morning, untouched since then, that had halved to less than 20cm by 4pm.
Overnight the snow has returned and as of 9am another 31cm has fallen. It is currently snowing heavily so adding up quite quickly. We are expecting snow through the day today and tomorrow, perhaps even into Monday. Clearer skies are due from Tuesday for a few days.
Today is the first day of the season for a bunch of ski areas in Yuzawa and nearby Minamiuonuma.
With the current conditions, information is patchy in places this morning - many people are still in 'coping' mode. For the moment as much information as possible has been updated on the list below, and it will be checked each morning. Things will calm down, but until then, sorry for the holes in information.
Ski areas seem to generally be opening rather cautiously, rather than full-on from the get go. Not exactly sure why that is, but perhaps they are still managing the snow, mindful of the more heavy snow that is due over the weekend and of course safety issues. Whatever the reason, we will surely be seeing them fully open before long.
-----
As of 3pm yesterday 670 vehicles were still stranded on the Kanetsu Expressway in the Minamiuonuma region and some people were facing a third night in their cars or trucks. Hopefully that situation will have been sorted this morning.
There have also been a number of reports of injuries from people moving and dealing with snow.
Whether you are skiing, snowboarding, moving snow or just going about normal things... take care.
-----
GALA Yuzawa
Operating lifts:
- Diligence Gondola
- Barouche quad lift
- Sociable quad lift
- Coach pair lift
- Phaeton pair lift
- Victoria quad lift
Courses open:
- Central Area (all open except Edelweiss)
- North Area (Broadway & Swan open)
Official snow depth:
- 210cm
Ishiuchi Maruyama
Operating lifts:
- Sunrise Express
- Tyrol Triple
- Kanko Number 3 Express
Official snow depth:
- Central: 250cm
- Base: 200cm
Joetsu Kokusai
Open lifts & courses:
- 7 lifts and 11 courses
Official snow depth:
- 170cm
Kagura
Operating lifts:
- Mitsumata Ropeway
- Mitsumata Number 1 quad lift
- Mitsumata Number 2 romance pair lift
- Kagura Number 1 high speed lift
- Kagura Number 1 romance pair lift
- Kagura Gondola
Courses open:
- Kagura main course
- Technical course
- Gondola course
- Family course
- Gondola line course
Official snow depth:
- Top: 220cm
- Base: 140cm
- The opening of Tashiro Area has been delayed
Kandatsu Snow Resort
Operating lifts:
- A, B, C, E lifts
Courses open:
- Most courses open
Official snow depth:
- 200cm
Naeba
- Official site down at time of writing
Maiko Snow Resort
Operating lifts:
- Gondola
- Okusoeji quad
- Okusoeji pair
Courses open:
- 11 courses in top area and Nagamine area
Official snow depth:
- 250cm (top)
Yuzawa Kogen
Operating lifts:
- Yuzawa Kogen Ropeway
- Cosmos
- Kogen Express
Yuzawa Nakazato
Operating lifts:
- Number 2 romance lift
- Number 3 romance lift
Official snow depth:
- 220cm
Nakazato Snow Wood
-----
Other planned opening dates:
Thursday 24th December 2020
- Iwappara
- NASPA Ski Garden
Friday 25th December 2020
- Ipponsugi
- Muica Snow Resort
- Muikamachi Hakkaisan
- Yuzawa Park
Saturday 26th December 2020
- Chateau Shiozawa
- Hakkai Sanroku
- Itsukamachi
Late December
- Mt Granview
Closed during the 2020-2021 winter season
- Ishiuchi Hanaoka
Yuzawa Now 2020-2021 season |
Data as of Saturday 19th December 2020 Total snowfall at base so far 285cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 6 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 96cm (16th December) November 2020 snowfall 0cm December 2020 snowfall 285cm reported on 6 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.