A consistent few weeks of cold temperatures and good regular powder dumps finished with warmer air coming in a few days ago. Evidently the northern faces didn’t realise this as the snow was still deep and pristine on any northern aspect from top to bottom as these pics show! Beautiful powder and stunning weather – what more could you ask! On the way up Roger dropping off the ridge between Ichinose and Ko-toomi Perfect powder! Looking back up from the Hirakawa

A high alpine assault of KoRenge (2760m) didn’t disappoint! A beautiful morning saw a group of locals. plus Bill from Alaska and Hans from Norway hiking out from the top of Tsugaike to their target the top of Ko-renge. The plan was to get up quickly following windblown ridge lines and descend south to SaruKura but a combination of early season unfitness, soft snow (not much wind during the last snowfall) and setting off 40 minutes later than planned meant we had to curtail the trip slightly. We ended up dropping off the corniced north east ridge of Korenge. The first bowl started over 50 degress but mellowed out below into a wide open bowl followed by perfect powder down to the flats of Shizenin below. Heres a pic of the drop in below. And some video of dropping in the same place. Mat on Korenge from steep deep japan on Vimeo. Matt on Korenge All in all a pretty Sick day!

Great Christmas! Two 11kilo Turkeys, all the trappings, roast veggies, and 40cm of fresh snow! = Lots of happy guests.

Eric, our new manager at Wadano lodge took a hike off the top of Happo today to check up on the conditions. About 2cm of snow in the valley had translated into knee deep above 2000m.

Beautiful day and not a cloud in the sky so went to stretch my legs on top at Goryu. Was expecting dust on crust but found 15cm of fresh snow on a forgiving base. The pistes were in perfect condition! The weather this week is expected to stay sunny and mild followed by colder temperatures and hopefully lots of snow from Friday the 6th of December. Here are some shots from today. Above is looking south over alps-daira. The top run at Goryu – snow was in perfect condition.

We’re having an early bonanza here in Hakuba. Last weeks opening was sensational with deep powder on the opening day November 21st and even better when the whole of the upper mountain opened at Goryu/47 and happo on the 22nd together with blue skies. The temperatures have gotten a bit milder since, but just to let you know that the high alpine is still in good nick, some friends have just returned with some pics from today of the north and south bowls of Happo. This is Shoji on the south face of Happo today A pretty sick start to the season! Heres to a great season!

Went up early today for the first lift accessed skiing of the 2008/2009 season. Turned up to the Hakuba 47 car park only to find the entire population of foreign pension owners gathered there. Up the top of the gondola there was over a metre of snow. Powder lay on the sides of the run and much fun was had by all. A great start to the season!! Tomorrow looks like a repeat with line C opening accessing the (untouched) steeps of line 3 which was looking very enticing indeed from below. Snow was coming down hard again by mid morning and looks like we could be in for another dump tonight..bring it on!

The transition from Autumn to Winter was swift this year with nothing on Monday and 40cm of fresh snow by Tuesday morning. Here’s the car park on Tuesday morning. Another 30cm should fall today and another 30cm tonight so the lifts should be running soon!! We’ll keep you posted!