First solid snowfall blankets Niseko

By 9.30am an inch-deep blanket of powder covered streets, cars and rooftops.

The snowfall thinned out during the middle part of the day and didn’t settle on roads or footpaths.

But that changed in the late afternoon when it dumped an inch or more of the fluffy stuff over the period of a couple of hours.

It snowed lightly but consistently throughout today (Friday) with a solid dump of about an inch over an hour or so at lunchtime today.

Forecasts are inconsistent from site to site but consensus is light to medium snow to continue in the same fashion over the next few days, with a possible heavy 12-hour-plus session towards Sunday.

Official Niseko United opening date is November 23 but there’s not much confidence it will actually open then.

Word on the street was Sapporo Kokusai was set to open tomorrow (Saturday) thanks to their snow making machines, but even they reported this afternoon there was not enough snow to open this weekend.

Nakayama Toge, usually one of the first Hokkaido resorts to get a good coverage of snow each season, is also yet to turn on its lifts.

Note: Apologies for the delay in this report. Although we would have liked to have got this out first thing yesterday morning we’ve been snowed under (sorry) with paid work.

Once we’ve settled into a routine during the season we will be publishing a story or two daily to keep you well up to speed with the ever changing face of Niseko.

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