REPORT

Happy New Year everyone! First up some news from the resort: it is now official that the Freeride World Tour will be held in the alpine area of Happo from 2/7 (Tue.) to 2/10 (Fri.)! Also, applications for the Hakuba Happo-One Riesen Slalom Competition, a legendary local event, are now being accepted until the 1/10 (Tue.) deadline. On the slopes this morning, dry snow was falling and a weak northerly wind was blowing as I got off the gondola, which started moving right on time at 8:00 a.m.
[Usagidaira]

I didn’t get my hopes up too high because of the relatively warm weather at the foot of the mountain on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but to my delight and surprise, there was 40cm of fluffy fresh snow on the steep ungroomed slopes along the Alpen Quad and Kurobishi 3 Pair! Although I bottomed out on the large surface bumps hidden under the new snow, I fully enjoyed a few fantastic powder runs.
[Usagidaira]

On 12/30 (Fri.), in addition to Riesen Grat, the area known as Omusubi (pictured) also opened. Omusubi is a steep, ungroomed slope that drops down from the beginning of the Skyline Course’s traverse cat track, and ends at Panorama’s beginner forest road course (a.k.a. “Panorin”). Here the unique undulations of the underlying natural terrain doubled the thrill of skiing powder on this day.
[Omusubi]

I was able to get some good speed on the southern route of Usagidaira and along the Kurobishi 2 Quad, which had 3 to 5cm of fresh, dry snow topping off the moderately firm, groomed powder snow surfaces. The Central Course had about 15cm of fluffy new snow on the medium-sized moguls, while the hirakaba Slope (pictured) was in good condition, with a thin layer of fresh snow covering the groomed, packed powder base.
[Shirakaba]

　
[Happo-One Opening Information for 1/2 (Mon.)]
*All courses are available!
*Available Lifts … Gondola (8:00 a.m.–), totally 15 lifts
*Fees … Adult JPY6,500, 6-17 y/o JPY3,200, Over 60 y/o JPY5,800

*Printable Rental Discount Coupons!
Carving Ski・Snowboard 1-Day Rental Set JPY3,000 / Outerwear JPY2,500!
Carving Ski・Snowboard High Performance Model Rental JPY500 OFF!
Kid’s Ski・Snowboard 1-Day Rental Set JPY2,500 / Outerwear JPY1,500!

*Click here to purchase photos found in this report

reported by Snownavi