Silver turned to blue yesterday. After that dull start to the day by early afternoon there were breaks in the cloud cover and increasing amounts of blue sky. Mid afternoon and it was lovely clear conditions and the sun was shining down.

This morning we don't have any fresh snowfall to report, and the clouds are back. Hardly any wind for the moment. Not much of the mountains to be seen this morning.

And... snow has started to fall again and the local forecast is for snow to continue today and tomorrow as well, possibly clearing up by Sunday when the sun will be back. It's a relatively mild morning again and right now close to around zero at village level, with a temperature of -3.5C up on the Usagidaira part of Happo-one. Earlier on Hakuba 47 reported -7C from the top area of the resort.

Tomorrow will likely be colder and possibly some stronger winds, though probably not enough to affect lift operations on the mountains. We'll just have to see how that develope. Like I said, possible sun on Sunday, and one eye on Monday when some potentially heavy snowfall will be with us.

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Official snow depths and operations @ Friday 15th February 2013 AM:

Hakuba Goryu:
No new snow reported by Hakuba Goryu.
Official snow depths:
Alps daira - 290cm;
Toomi - 150cm;
Iimori - 125cm

Hakuba 47:
No new snowfall reported by Hakuba 47.
Official snow depth:
Upper - 240cm
Lower - 180cm

Happo-one:
Official snow depth:
Usagidaira - 280cm
Nakiyama/Shirakaba - 120cm
Sakka - 120cm

Tsugaike Kogen:
Official snow depth:
Upper slopes - 330cm
Lower slopes - 150cm

Hakuba Cortina:
No new snow reported by Hakuba Cortina since yesterday.
Official snow depth:
Upper slopes - 340cm
Lower slopes - 220cm

Hakuba Iwatake:
Official snow depth:
Upper slopes - 175cm
Lower slopes - 75cm

Hakuba Sanosaka:
Official snow depth:
150cm

Hakuba Minekata:
120cm