It is a mix of blue sky and cloud up there this morning in Nozawa. It's mild and getting on for about 10C this lunchtime, but still not perhaps getting as warm as we might usually expect for after mid-April!

Bit of course news - just the upper part of the Skyline course remains open now. So how do we get down, I hear you ask! Well, from the mid-way point of the Skyline course, you turn onto the Kamoshika course and then to base via the Karasawa course. A shuttle bus will then take you back to the Gondola so you can go back up the mountain again.

Yamabiko courses still officially boasting over 3m of snow up there. Last year we were doing pretty well for snow as well, but taking a look back at the same date in 2011 shows that the same number was 265cm. So a full 45cm more when comparing the numbers. As you might expect, there are places higher up where there is considerably less, but it's still a really impressive number.

Current Official Snow Depths Numbers:

Yamabiko:
310cm

Uenotaira:
270cm

* Readings by the resort from lower slopes now seem to have finished - though there's still generally plenty.

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Current Lift operations (scheduled):
Nagasaka Gondola
Yamabiko Four
Yamabiko Four No2
Skyline Link

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Main courses open (scheduled):
Yamabiko A
Yamabiko C
Yamabiko D
Yamabiko E
Skyline (upper half) - go to base via Kamoshika and Karasawa
Uenotaira
Paradise
Schneider
Utopia courses
Yunomine A, B
Challenge
Bunabayashi
Rinkan

The above are subject to change.