Wow, yesterday was perhaps a surprise for many people even if we were expecting snow to fall. Different measurements in different places but around the village it was 25cm in places, and some people over at Happo were reporting up to a full 1m of snow up at 1850m.

Pretty impressive hey?

So impressive that we are going to have an early start to the season it seems. This morning Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba 47 have announced that they will be opening on Saturday 17th November and Sunday 18th November. For the moment, Goryu are saying it is open 'from Saturday' while 47 are saying that the opening is just for the weekend.

What will be open? It looks like the Hakuba Goryu gondola will be operating from 8:15am until 4:15pm, with the Alps No1 pair lift operating from 8:30am until 4pm. The top Hakuba 47 Line E pair lift will be open.

The courses open will be the top Hakuba Goryu Alps daira Panorama course (850m) and the top Hakuba 47 R8 course by the Line E lift.

Note that the 47 Gondola and Line C lifts will not be operating and so the only way up the mountain is via the the Hakuba gondola, so that's your base!

Lift tickets will cost 2400 yen for adults and seniors, 1250 yen for younger children.

In other news, Happo are talking about the possibility of opening on 23rd November.

We are seeing some sun and blue skies as well today after that lovely surprise yesterday and we may see more tomorrow. Then a chance of snow again over the wekened, but likely not like we say yesterday.

Looks like it could be a great start to the season, though keep in mind that it is still very early on and we could well see long spells of clear weather before the season properly gets underway.