After the weekend and yesterday, this morning no ski lifts are operating in Hakuba with the Gondola and lift at the Hakuba Goryu resort stopped due to apparently strong winds up on the top area of the resort.

Down in the village now it is just grey clouds up there at the moment with some patches of blue sky - even a bit of sun at the moment - but a mix of rain, sleet and snow is forecast and probably in that order as we move into evening with perhaps some snowfall overnight. The snow down at village level has now almost completely gone with the snowline creeping back up the mountain sides. Spoilsports!

Still, there is 30cm or more of packed snow up on the higher parts of the resorts which will likely be staying with us and forming the base for the season.

It's still not looking like there's much snow coming in the week ahead though, save a sprinkling or two up top. So we will just have to see how things go for the coming weekend. It's a 3 day weekend with Friday being a national holiday in Japan and so it would be good if things could be open for that.

We must remember that we are still very early and a few weeks away from some of the resorts official opening dates.

Keep calm and Hakuba!