Saturday 19th December 2009

Weather conditions: Moderate Snow
New snowfall: 50-80 cm (village)
Snow depth: 95 cm (Goryu base) 140 cm (Goryu top)
Huge amounts of snow has fallen since yesterday into the night and shows no time of stopping anytime soon. Hakuba is looking more like the winter with huge mounds of untouched snowfall everywhere you look in the village – and of course out on the mountains too. The groomers have been out all night and trying really hard to open more lifts and runs.

More resorts are quickly opening up more areas of their mountain for people to enjoy this new snow.

At Hakuba 47 basically the whole resort is now open with all courses skiable.

At Goryu, the Telecabin and Alps No 1 and No 3 pair lifts as well as the Sky Four and No 1 pair in the Toomi area and the Milky 4 and No 1 pair in the No 6 pair in Iimori with the Cosmo 4 planning to be open tomorrow.

Happo has more of the mountain open this morning with other courses on the resort currently being prepared to open as soon as possible. Early on courses open are the upper part of the mountain – Usagidaira, Panorama and Kurobishi – being serviced by the Gondola, Hakuba Kokusai No 3 pair lift, Panorama pair lift, Alpen quad and Kurobishi No 2 quad lifts.

At Hakuba Iwatake the Gondola as well as Kamoshika No 4 pair, Iwatake No 4 pair and Iwatake No 5 quad are operating.

The forecast is still looking good for more heavy snowfall from now until Monday morning. With this snowfall the resorts should be close fully operational after the weekend.

Observed new snow: about 50cm

Official resort snow depths on 19th Dec 09:

Happo-one:
90cm (Shirakaba) [19 Dec] 150cm (Sakka/Kitaone) [19 Dec] 100cm (Kurobishi/Usagidaira) [19 Dec] Hakuba Goryu:
80cm (Iimori)
95cm (Toomi)
140cm (Alps daira)
Hakuba 47:
130cm
Tsugaike Kogen:
100cm (Kanenonaruoka)
90cm (Maruyama)
141cm (Tsuganomori)
Hakuba Iwatake:
-cm (Shomen)
-cm (Sancho)
Sun Alpina Sanosaka:
100cm (open)

New snowfall 50-80 cm (village)
Previous day 50 cm
Current snow depth 140 cm (Goryu base) 95 cm (Goryu top)
Temperature bottom -6 C (daytime in shade)
Temperature top -7 (less with wind chill)
Weather condition snowing
Wind condition moderate wind wind from from the West
Visibility limited visibility due to snowy conditions
Lift operation Kashimayari Sun Alpina Ski Area – partly open (top section). Hakuba 47 & Goryu (Upper Courses), Tsugaike (Hanaoki Course)