You know when things are going good when you hear people complain about 'too much snow'. Yes I heard that silly comment a few times yesterday.

It was a great day though, seriously. Not only did we have all that new snow to play in all over the mountain, but the clouds cleared up in the afternoon and we had blue skies over the mountain for a while... days don't get much better than that.

The heavy snowfall transformed many parts of the resort and was just what we wanted and needed.

Curiously this morning the resort is only reporting 5cm across the mountain - apart from Uenotaira on 20cm. Add that to the 5cm or so since yesterday morning and we have another layer this morning.

The latest forecast is for cloud/snow today. The poor visibility up top will likely clear, though perhaps not in the specatacular fashion it did yesterday, maybe more just cloud.

Tomorrow sun is forecast so it should be a very good weekend.

The only thing to mention is the crowds. It's the first day of a three day long weekend in Japan and one of the peak times of the snow season. So there are going to be a lot of people in Nozawa. A lot. Early starts are highly recommended to get out there early before the main crowds.

We do of course have the famous Fire festival on the 15th January as well, but that's mid-week (Wednesday). Preparations and 'pre-events' for that from Monday.

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Saturday 11th January 2014:

Official snow depths:
Yamabiko - 250cm
Uenotaira - 215cm
Hikage - 140cm
Nagasaka - 130cm
Karasawa - 100cm

Lifts
All lifts operating

Courses
All courses open except:
Kandahar West
Kandahar East