Rain it is then. Or it was, as it is holding off at the moment though we do have rain forecast today. It has been cooler as well the last few days and right now about 10C in the Maruike area. For the weekend there's more of a chance of seeing the sun, but there will always be the possibility of some rain showers both on Saturday and Sunday. As you can see on the snow depth numbers, the snow is quickly getting less now and really thin on the ground in lots of lower areas now... for example some bare patches of ground are now visible on the slopes of Ichinose Family. It won't be long now before it disappears, but we can probably make it through the weekend as planned, or just about.

From Monday, only parts of Kumanoyu and Yokoteyama will remain open. I'll post another report then with a roundup of news.

Have a fun second half of Golden Week. Fingers crossed we get some decent weather for this weekend.

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Official resort snow depths as of Friday 4th May 2012 AM:

Yokoteyama:
95cm
Kumanoyu:
55cm
Ichinose Family:
70cm
Okushiga Kogen:
80cm

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Planned lift operations, subject to change:

Higashitateyama:
Open 28th April - 6th May

Terakoya:
Open 28th April - 6th May

Mammoth:
Quad open until 6th May

Tannenomori:
Open 28th April until 6th May

Ichinose Family:
Quad & No2 pair until 6th May

Ichinose Diamond:
Quad and moving walkway until 6th May

Yakebitaiyama:
Gondola and No2 high quad lift until 6th May

Okushiga Kogen:
Gondola, No2, No3 and No4 lifts until 6th May

Kumanoyu:
No1 and No3 quad pair until 6th May
No2 pair until 13th May

Yokoteyama:
No1 Sky, No2, No3 Sky, Shibutoga lifts plan to be open until late May