Into another week - only three more left now! - and it's another fine morning here in Niseko. Not quite as bright and blue are yesterday but contrary to the forecast it is a reasonably warm morning here, definitely a bit warmer than yesterday morning. There's more of a wind as well which has been affecting lifts a bit early on...

At Hirafu the Ace Quad Lift is moving along with Ace No3 pair lift, which seems to be open because they have the King No3 and No4 lifts on standby due to the wind early on. That may well change this morning so worth checking if you are out there of course. The Gondola at Hirafu is of course closed again Monday to Friday, but will be open again for the weekends and Golden Week.

At Annupuri, the four lifts seem to be moving as planned.

Still on for some rain (chance of snow higher up) tomorrow, followed by things warming up in the second half of the week.

----

Current lift operations (16th April 2012):

Grand Hirafu & Hanazono:
Ace Quad Lift No2
Ace No3 pair
King Hooded Triple Lift #3 [STANDBY]
King Lift #4 [STANDBY]
The Hirafu Gondola will operate on 21st, 22nd, 28th, 29th, 30th April, and also from 3rd May until 6th May.

Annupuri:
Annupuri Gondola
Jumbo No1 quad
Jumbo No3 pair
Jumbo No4 pair

----

Grand Hirafu and Annupuri both plan to be open until 6th May.
The Hanazono and Niseko Village areas are now closed.
Niseko Village plans to re-open for the Golden Week holiday period from Sunday 29th April until Sunday 6th May.

----

Official snow depths:

Grand Hirafu / Hanazono:
Top - 375cm
Bottom - 140cm

Annupuri:
Top - 390cm
Bottom - 140cm