It rained all day yesterday with a break at the afternoon and then started again late night. At some time during the wee hours of the morning it started snowing lightly, but, along with it came gales. As such, it is difficult to really estimate how much snow did fall. It started snowing again at 09:00 but it is blizzard conditions out there. The good news is that the snow should continue falling over the next couple of days but not as heavy as originally forecasted.

It is, therefore, really grim out there with the cloud very low and below base. The slush became ice and, with only a small layer currently on top, combined with the strong winds, definitely makes this an onsen day! A lot of lifts are not running as a consequence of the wind.

I omitted mentioning yesterday that the Shinkansen is not running between the Nasu area and Fukushima as power lines went down due to the earthquake as well as checks being made on the line. It might be up and running now as Japan is usually pretty fast in this kind of repair work, but, do check if you're coming up or are going back (a local train is running for the halted Shinkansen section, however, it is slooooow).

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All lifts scheduled to be operating apart from:

- Onsen Number 4 quad
- Onsen Zao Kokutai pair
- Sunrise pair A
- Ryuzan pair
- Karamatsu pair
- Paradise Number 3 pair

All areas open apart from:

- Ryuzan
- Kotan

Official snow depths (as reported by the ski area):

- Summit area: 145cm
- Paradise area: 160cm
- Chuo area: 160cm
- Utopia area: 170cm
- Uwanodai area: 130cm
- Omori area: 90cm
- Kurohime: 170cm


Floodlit night skiing:

Uwanodai area:

- Daily until 6th March 2021
- 13th, 19th, 20th March 2021

Yokokura area:

- Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until 6th March 2021

'Light Up' Ropeway operations:

The Zao Ropeway opens in the evenings on the below dates for 'Light Up' sightseeing purposes - to go and see the Juhyo monsters (not for skiing or boarding) on the following upcoming dates:

- Every day in February 2021 except Tuesdays

Note: there is an extra charge for this night time Ropeway operation.