Time to close out the season.... which sort of petered out there at the end without me actually knowing when our last operating resort (Seki Onsen) finally gave up.

Akakan and Seki had planned to keep going until May 5, but there was no possible way to do that (as that snow disappeared about two weeks ago). I sat at home watching the slopes above the ski areas literally turn from white to brown over less than a week, thanks to some strong, warm winds - which continues to blow, for that matter!

How to sum up this season?

Look to the next, is the conclusion, I think!

We just went through an El Niño of the kind we haven’t seen for a long time - not in my 20 years in Myoko, anyway. The fear is that this is the trend for the future (we’ll ignore all the politics and such behind that, though), but on that point, who knows? Some say the changes in climate could bring rougher weather, and even maybe more snow.

It’s going to be better next year; that’s my only prediction.

But that also means I need to overhaul that regular visitor to these reports, my mighty snowthrower. I think I refilled the tank twice this season, and the disuse means both that the battery died (it was getting old anyway), and there’s lots of rust to take on over the summer. Hopefully he’ll be out there more daily, and showing up in these reports, more often in 2016-2017.

See you in a few months!

PS Forgot: the Myoko Sky Cable gondola at Akakan is running this week! And it starts up again in July. Have to check on the Suginohara gondola, which did run last summer/autumn.