Zao Now: Sunday 10th December 2017
- Dec 10, 2017
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 5, 2025
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Zao region of Yamagata
New snowfall at base 1cm
Snowfall at base this season 84cm
Posted on Sunday 10th December 2017 This is an archived report. The latest Zao Now report can be found here.
Morning from Zao.
The safety ceremony took place over on the Uwanodai base area yesterday. Fittingly, snow was falling for the occasion.
It's cloudy at the moment and it looks like visibility up on the open Chuo area is pretty poor.
A recap on what is open at Zao - parts of Utopia, Paradise, Chuo and Uwanodai areas. I have updated the operating lifts list below to reflect what appears to be open this morning.
We probably need a decent and prolonged dump of snow for more to open up. Later tomorrow into Wednesday shows potential still.
Fingers crossed.
Operating lifts:
- Chuo Number 1 pair
- Chuo Number 2 pair
- Zao Paradise Pair AB
- Katakai triple
- Mikaeri pair
- Onsen Number 1 pair
- Zao Ropeway
- Zao Chuo Ropeway
- Sky Cable
Official snow depths:
- Summit area: 40cm
- Paradise area: 45cm
- Chuo area: 45cm
- Utopia area: 45cm
- Uwanodai area: 25cm
- Oomori area: 5cm
Zao Now 2017-2018 season |
Data as of Sunday 10th December 2017 Total snowfall at base 84cm Number of days snowfall observed at base 12 days Most snowfall observed in 1 day 32cm (on 25th November) November 2017 snowfall 66cm observed on 5 days December 2017 snowfall 18cm observed on 7 days |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Zao 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.