General message from SnowJapan (added 20th April 2020):

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Original report:

Hello everyone.

Yesterday I spent some time writing lots of words as a season wrap-up. But I have decided to scrap that. I have written billions of words since November in my daily reports. Well, maybe not quite so many. They are all there. You can go read them at any time. They tell the story of the season.

So I am going to make this last post relatively short.

What a season it has been.

Alas, it has not been the amazing season that we all yearn for and has been punctuated by two major things going on - the low levels of snowfall and then the coronavirus.

From the viewpoint of covering the season by writing these reports every morning, it feels like it has been an ongoing struggle throughout the season. I imagine more than a few other people involved have similar feelings. So let me just say a big thank you and well done to all of the people working at the ski areas and related services and dealing with everything. I hope that you can get to have a rest.

Taking a look at the official snowfall data table below, Happo-one reported over 8m of snowfall and the other resorts reported around 6m of snowfall on their upper slopes. It has not been as consistent as we would have liked, but I have been able to enjoy some great days on the mountain. There have been periods of excellent conditions. I hope that if you did get to visit Hakuba this season you were able to enjoy good timing in terms of snow conditions and that you could enjoy getting to know this lovely place.

As always, there was much more snow on the mountain than down in base areas. But this year there was clearly less than we expect and some lower slopes have been really struggling throughout the season.

The snowfall situation has not been just a Hakuba thing - it has been a most-of-Japan thing. Everyone is hopeful that this season was just strangely abnormal and that we can get back to more like what we expect for 2020-2021.

And then came coronavirus. The first thing we noticed was a decrease in visitors from overseas around the Chinese New Year period. And then it just got more of a thing, leading up to the early closures of Happo-one and then the other ski areas a few days ago.

It is going to feel odd to not be writing Hakuba Now reports right through until the end of Golden Week in early May.

But sadly, not much feels normal right now.

Some things do remain constant though:

- the stunning beauty of Hakuba
- the very fine people of Hakuba
- Japan is ace

Like everyone else, I am so much looking forward to hearing brighter news regarding the virus and then hopefully we can have a normal 2020-2021 season with consistent snow and lots of happy smiles.

I choose to believe that.

Thank you for reading my reports this season and for following the season through all the ups and downs. You can re-visit the season at any time by reading the archive reports below.

I will be back with you in November.

For now, I am going to sign off with how I ended a report last week because it seemed fitting.

Take care.

Love Hakuba.

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Here is the final official snowfall data table of the season:

The information in this table is data reported by the ski resorts	TOTAL ACCUMULATION (UPPER)
Hakuba 47	556cm
Hakuba Cortina	573cm
Hakuba Goryu	623cm
Hakuba Happo-one	827cm

About the data in the above table

The table contains data that was published by individual ski resorts. The data shown is the amount of snowfall that the ski resorts themselves reported on the upper areas of their mountain. Unlike our own ‘observed snowfall’ data (which is observed from base areas), the data in the table is not an independent observation by SnowJapan. A more in-depth introduction and explanation can be found in this report

Also, note that Hakuba Cortina closed and then re-opened... some snowfall was not recorded during the closed period.

Look at the data as an interesting bit of additional information, rather than as a detailed scientific study!