Hakuba Snow Report – 5th Jan 2012

Weather conditions: Snowing.
New snowfall: 30+ cm (village)
Snow depth: 90cm (Village ); 215cm (Top of Goryu)
Good morning all shredders and skiers!And a very good one it is too, as I bring good snow news. Hakuba has been getting dumped on like crazy since yesterday. It hasn’t really stopped snowing since yesterday. The new snow accumulation is about 30 to 40cm over at Happo-one and I would say 30cm or so down in the village areas.

The less good news is that some of the lifts at some of the resorts around the area are not operating this morning due to winds. Happo is affected with the Happo Gondola, Alpen quad, Kokusai 3, Kurobishi 2&3, and Skyline lifts not open so far this morning. A few lifts at Hakuba Goryu (No2 and No4 up at Alps daira) are not moving and Line D at Hakuba 47 aside, but those two resorts are generally fairing better.

Over to the north in Otari, the runs and lifts up from the mid-station of the Gondola at Tsugaike Kogen have been closed and the upper areas of Cortina are closed as well.

Cortina is actually reporting an impressive 55cm of fresh snowfall this morning on it’s upper slopes bringing their snow depth up to 260cm. Once the winds and snowfall calm down, conditions over there in particular will certainly be top notch.

Visibility has been really generally poor this morning, but looks like it might well be starting to get better.

We’ve all been waiting for a snowfall like this of course and fingers crossed that it is a good sign of things to come for a very snowy January – we always want more! But finally those bushes and bald areas are getting covered and it is making the terrain look much better.

Please be careful with avalanche danger too – guides went up to Tsugaike yesterday and said that some parts of the terrain are a bit sketchy. Caution needed.