It's another cold morning in Nozawa. -5 degrees here in village, and -10 on the upper slopes. Extra layer needed.

Snowy news to report this morning with 20cm being reported from the Yamabiko area and 28cm from the Uenotaira area. Yamabiko breaks through the 2m mark in time for New Year. Lower slopes are reporting 0cm.

A cracking morning here though with blue skies and sunny conditions. Clouds from overnight have very quickly left the scene. Beautiful out there and there'll be some great views to be enjoyed. Even the most recent forecasts were for conditions clearing later on today and snow this morning, but I just can't see the snow back today looking up at the skies now. If we are to believe the same forecasts, it'll be more sun tomorrow. Still looking at snow for New Year.

And talking of New Year... as people continue to arrive in Nozawa for New Year, lifts are going to be putting in an extra bit of overtime. From today (29th) until Tuesday (31st) and then from Thursday (2nd) until next Saturday (4th), base lifts will be starting to move from 8am and the gondolas will start up at 8:10am. Presumably the resort feels that there'll be too many groggy heads early morning on 1st January to need to open that bit earlier that day!

---

Sunday 29th December 2013:

Official snow depths:
Yamabiko - 210cm
Uenotaira - 180cm
Hikage - 85cm
Nagasaka - 75cm
Karasawa - 55cm

Lifts
All lifts operating

Courses
All courses open apart from:
Grand Prix
Hachiman
Kandahar East
Kandahar West