Good morning from Hakuba.

I was outside a little earlier on - it's really cold this morning! Cold, but really nice weather with the sun shining down on us. It is another of those beauties with no clouds over the mountain backdrop and lots of blue sky.

There's no fresh snow to report but with the cold conditions the snow on the mountain should be in excellent condition this morning. Nice.

You can now ski down to base at Tsugaike Kogen now available via the Katamatsu course which is now open. Large parts of the Happo-one resort are now open, but note that you can't ski or board back to base there just yet. Hopefully soon.

Today sees Hakuba Iwatake Snow Field resort open for the season. They have their Gondola operating as well as two lifts and the East and South courses in the Mountain Side of the resort open.

Snow clouds are due to move back over the region sometime tomorrow with decent snowfall forecast into Sunday. It might be a little mild so a worry that the snow might be wet at first down in the village - so fingers crossed it remains 'snow' and not 'rain'!

For now though should be a great day outside.

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Hakuba Cortina and Kashimayari should be opening tomorrow.

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Ski resort opening status on Friday 15th December 2017:

Hakuba Happo-one

Operating lifts:
- Gondola Adam
- Panorama pair lift
- Alpen quad lift
- Hakuba Riesen quad lift
- Kurobishi Number 2 quad lift
- Skyline Number 2 pair lift
- Kokusai Number 3 pair lift

Courses open:
- Panorama area
- Usagidaira area
- Kurobishi area
- Skyline area
- Riesen slalom

Official snow depth:
- Kurobishi: 170cm
- Usagidaira: 125cm
- Lower: -cm

Hakuba Goryu

Operating lifts:
- Goryu Telecabin (gondola)
- Alps Number 1 pair lift
- Alps Number 3 pair lift
- Toomi Sky Four lift
- Milky Four lift
- Number 6 pair lift

Courses open:
- Panorama
- Grand Prix
- Technical
- Super
- Champion
- Champion Expert
- Woody
- Toomi
- Soft Cream
- Powder Snow

Official snow depth:
- Top: 185cm
- Toomi: 60cm
- Iimori: 30cm

Hakuba 47

Operating lifts:
- Line 8 Gondola
- Line AB pair lift
- Line C quad lift
- Line E high speed pair lift

Courses open:
- All main courses are open
- Tree Riding Zone not open yet

Official snow depth:
- Top: 185cm
- Base: 50cm

Tsugaike Kogen

Operating lifts
- EVE Gondola
- Tsuga Number 2 pair lift
- Han-no-ki high speed pair lift
- Han-no-ki Number 3 quad lift

Courses open:
- Tsuga-no-mori
- Han-kou
- Han-no-ki
- Sawa-one
- Upper course through forest
- Shirakaba
- Karamatsu

Official snow depth:
- Tsuga-no-mori: 160cm
- Han-no-ki: 160cm

Hakuba Iwatake Snow Field

Operating lifts
- Gondola
- 4 East
- 5 South

Courses open:
- East
- South

Official snow depth:
- Top: 70cm
- Base: 20cm

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Other official planned ski resort opening dates:

Saturday 16th December 2017
Hakuba Cortina
Hakuba Valley Kashimayari

Mid December 2017
Hakuba Norikura Onsen
Hakuba Sanosaka