The sun came out yesterday and it quite quickly transformed into a very fine day. Sunny with almost clear blue skies. Lovely. A great day. And Santa seemed to enjoy himself as well. Good skier too.

Anyway, back to this morning. There is about 5cm of new snow to report after we had some snow overnight and it's a nice cold morning, currently around -4C here at base. It's an overcast cloudy feel to the morning, though a few breaks in the cloud especially out towards Mt Yotei so who knows it might start clearing once again like yesterday.

Next snowfall due into Friday and through the weekend.

There may well be some sore heads this morning but no doubt people will quickly surface to enjoy the mountain. Hope you have an excite Christmas, wherever you are reading this from. All the best.

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Niseko Avalanche Report

Niseko base 6am: -5C, 5cm of fresh snow. Moiwa 800m: -6C, 10cm of fresh, calm.

Annupuri 1150m: -6C, NW5m/s, 5cm of fresh. Coastal data: Benkei cape NNW12m/s, Kamui cape NW5m/s, 1.8m waves and 1021hPa.

A westerly wind is stagnating around under 10m/s at 1500m altitude. According to data eveluation, snowfall transition and observations, no drastic development of snowdrifts can be observed and the general avalanche risk is low except in knolls ad cornice slopes. 40cm slab avalanche is to considered in 1000m Osawa & Backbowl cornice area. Slab slides from Dec 24th is also to be considered in Haruno Taki (strictly off-limits) due to yesterday’s sunshine. Gate 1 is scheduled to open today. Travering all the way across the bowl to the cornices is totally thoughtless.The snow in the trees hasn’t ben reset, but still soft and nice. Beware of hitting trees and falling into creeks. Have a nice day.

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Official snow depth numbers and lift news at time of writing:

Grand Hirafu / Hanazono:
Top - 220cm
Base - 100cm
All lifts operating apart from Ace Number 4 pair and King Number 2 quad.


Niseko Village:
Top - 140cm
Base - 100cm
All lifts operating apart from Country Road.

Annupuri:
Top - 125cm
Base - 120cm
All lifts operating apart from Family pair.