There's lots of fog up there on the mountain this morning. Can't see a thing on the Yamabiko and Uenotaira cams. Lower down we can see more and while there's a few breaks in the clouds it's mostly thick cloud cover. We are avoiding rain at the moment but we might not escape it later on though it might well be falling as snow on the upper slopes.

It's approaching 8:30am now and around +5 degrees in the village - it should actually be getting colder as the day goes on.

There's some encouraging signs for the chance of snow on the mountain over the weekend, so fingers crossed that happens. It might not be a mega-load but a slight refresh would be welcome. As you might expect, the upper slopes are and will be offering the better conditions.

Oh one more thing. Festival time tomorrow (Saturday)! Head over to the Hikage base area for 7:30pm when things start. There'll be various events going on, sake and no doubt some oishii nibbles on offer too, topped off with a firework display scheduled for 8:30pm.

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Friday 27th February 2014:

Official snow depths:
Yamabiko - 310cm
Uenotaira - 245cm
Hikage - 160cm
Nagasaka - 155cm
Karasawa - 120cm

Lifts
Weekday operations - all lifts operating except:
Yunomine pair
Mizunashi triple
Challenge pair
Utopia pair
Hikage Number 2 pair A

Courses
All courses open except:
Kandahar West