It has been a Snowtastic 24 hours here, a bit mad to be honest. We have been well and truly snowed on.

The best measure I can give is that I wiped 30cm off the top of my car at 5pm last night. And this morning there's 50cm on the top there. No kidding. So that's a confirmed 80cm of snow since yesterday. It's still snowing and forecast to until this evening, so that will only be added to.

We usually get some snow around now and it usually melts before the 'proper' snow arrives and sets in the for the season, but this feels 'proper'... it may well warm up a little in the coming week but I can't see this lot going.

That means of course that it's very probably a really great base for the resorts around town.

Locals seems to be in a bit of shock though. I think my Myoko friend mentioned it yesterday but as much preperation as people seem to do, there's always a bit of a mad dash panic when the first snow hits. And when it hits in this kind of style...!

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OK so let's look at resort news.

This morning Kagura are curiously only reporting 50cm of fresh snow. Perhaps they don't want to frighten away people who don't like hearing about 'too much snow' (believe it or not, they exist!)

As you might expect with all the new snow they are opening up more.

Mitsumata:

-Main Course
-Technical Course
-Gondola Course
-Family Course
-Gondola Line

Lifts operating: Mitsumata Ropeway, Mitsumata Number 1 Quad, Mitsumata Number 3 Romance lift, Kagura Gondola, Kagura Number 1 Quad (every day), Kagura Number 1 Romance lift (holidays)

Tashiro:

Tashiro Number 1 Course
Rakuraku Course
Tashiro Ladies Course (* but men allowed)
Shirakaba Course
Number 1 Quad connecting course
Skyline Course
Tashiro Aries Course

Lifts operating: Tashiro Ropeway, Tashiro Number 1 Romance lift, Tashiro Number 2 Romance lift, Tashiro Number 1 high speed, Tashiro Number 4 Romance lift (holidays)

So Kagura isn't connected up with Tashiro yet, but fairly big chunks of either side are now open.

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No detailed news yet from Iwappara and Joetsu Kokusai (who yesterday were saying that they will be considering opening from Wednesday this coming week, but with the snow we have now...)

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Resorts currently open:

Kagura (Mitsumata)
Kagura (Tashiro)

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Planned opening dates for resorts in Yuzawa Town and Minamiuonuma City (by date):

As soon as possible (not confirmed at time of writing):
Iwappara
Joetsu Kokusai

Saturday 13th December:
Maiko Snow Resort
Naeba

Friday 19th December:
Ishiuchi Maruyama
Muikamachi Ski Resort
Yuzawa Nakazato
Yuzawa Kogen
Yuzawa Park

Saturday 20th December:
Chateau Shiozawa
GALA Yuzawa
Ipponsugi
Kandatsu Kogen
Ludens Yuzawa
Nakazato Snow Wood
Muimamachi Hakkaisan
NASPA Ski Garden
Yuzawa Kogen (Nunoba area)

Tuesday 23rd December:
Itsukamachi

Thursday 25th December:
Hakkaisanroku

Saturday 27th December:
Ishiuchi Hanaoka

Late December
Mt Granview

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Ski resorts in Yuzawa town
Ski resorts in Minamiuonuma City