REPORT

“Today is THE DAY!,” said the lift man. The line that began to form in front of the 2nd Quad shortly after 7:30 a.m. stretched all the way to the 3rd Quad boarding area before the 8:30 a.m. opening time. I was surprised at the number of people, which was unusual for a weekday in January, but I was even more surprised to see that about 80% of them were from other countries.
[Ipponmatsu Course]

I spoke with a snowboarder from Aichi Prefecture, who said to me, “The groomed snow on the Ipponmatsu course was fantastic!” In fact, the groomers were all in perfect powder snow condition this morning. The 40 cm difference in snow level marking the border between the groomed Ikenota Slope and the ungroomed Itadaira Course was a testament to the tremendous amount of snow that fell during the day yesterday.
[Ikenota Slope]

When the long-awaited 4th Pair Lift got moving at 9:00 a.m., the crowd cheered and the excitement was palpable. I was also stoked to see the large amount of fresh snow on the smooth, untouched slopes (pictured) from the lift. At that time, dry snow was falling on the upper portion of the ski resort.
[4th Pair Lift]

I was in a hurried state of anticipation as I began to remove my feet from the bindings to see just how far they would sink into the snow on the Hiedayama Course 1. It turns out there was over 80cm of fluffy new snow! Since the snow had fallen most intensely during the daytime hours yesterday, tracks presumably laid down towards the end of the day were still visible on the surface, but I never hit the bottom and the feeling of floating on powder was incredible.
[Hiedayama Course 1]

　
[Hakuba Cortina Available Information on 1/31 (Tue.)]
*All courses are available! (Itadaira-one C)
*Available Lifts … No.2 Lift (8:30-) and totally 6 lifts.
*Lift Fees … Adult JPY5,000, 6-12 y/o JPY3,500, Over 60 y/o JPY4,500 (Until 3/19)
*Night Skiing … Saturday in January & February, 17:00-21:00, Ikenota G, Adult JPY1,500, 6-12 y/o JPY1,000
　
*Printable Rental Discount Coupons!
Adult One-Day Lift Ticket Pack with Lunch or Shop Voucher JPY1,200 coupon = JPY7,200 → JPY6,000
Child One-Day Lift Ticket Pack with Lunch or Shop Voucher JPY1,000 coupon = JPY5,000 → JPY4,300

*Click here to purchase photos found in this report

reported by Snownavi