Good morning from Hakuba.

It sure was a warm day yesterday. Up and over 20 degrees at base.

Today hasn't been as warm, rising to around 15 this lunchtime.

The day started off with lots of cloud around the mountains. The view from the high points of Happo-one looked amazing with a blanket sea of cloud over the village and blue skies above that. The cloud moved on and by 10am was mostly gone with just a few clouds hanging around and those blue skies visible from base.

This afternoon it might cloud over again and tomorrow the forecast tell us cloud and sun. Should be another warm day too.

Here's a round up on what is open at the ski and snowboard resorts in the Hakuba area as we start another week.

You can still ski down to the Gondola base station at Goryu. However that the bottom run down on Toomi (Goryu) is getting very thin on the ground now, with huge areas of ground on either side of it.... I can't see that lasting much longer. The Expert Course is closed. Probably best to get the Gondola down anyway and just enjoy the better snow on the upper slopes.

At Hakuba 47 most of the runs are still open, but some with more parts of nature starting to peek through up from under the snow. There's just a few small areas near base that they have closed off now.

At Hakuba Happo-one it is basically 'the top bit' that is open - Riesen Grat Course, Usagidaira, Kurobishi, Panorama and Skyline courses.

Top bits at Tsugaike Kogen as well.

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Official snow depths and operations @ Monday 15th April 2013 AM:

Hakuba Goryu:
The following lifts planned to be operating until May 6th - Gondola, upper Number 1 and Number 3 pair lifts. Need to take the Gondola back down.
Official snow depths:
Alps daira - 180cm;
Toomi - 25cm

Hakuba 47:
The following lifts planned to be operating - Gondola, Line AB, C and E.
Official snow depth:
Upper - 115cm
Lower - 35cm

Happo-one:
The following lifts planned to be operating until May 6th - Gondola, Alpen quad, Kurobishi Number 2 quad, Kurobishi Number 3 pair, Hakuba Kokusai Number 3 pair
Parallel pair, Skyline Number 2 pair, Grat quad, Kokusai Number 1 pair, Usagidaira pair
Official snow depth:
Usagidaira - 145cm
Lower - 0cm

Tsugaike Kogen:
The following lifts planned to be operating - Gondola, Ropeway, Tsuga Number 2 pair, Hannoki pair. Need to take the Gondola back down.
Official snow depth:
Upper slopes - 205cm
Lower slopes - 0cm

Hakuba Iwatake Snow Field, Hakuba Sanosaka, Hakuba Cortina and Hakuna Minekata resorts are now closed for the season.