At the beginning of the week, I was still a little skeptical as the weather forecast was anything but rosy, i.e. snowy. With one eye on the precipitation radar, it took a few early morning online studies to decide where to go. The differences in terms of fresh snow and weather were pretty extreme, even in the relatively small region.
One area had received 35 cm of fresh snow overnight, while the other, just 20 minutes away, had just 10 cm. In one area, the storm blew all day, so that almost all lifts were closed, while only a little further on there was hardly a breeze.
Sometimes it's almost like playing Russian roulette. After five winters here in Hakuba, you get something of a seventh sense, but despite this, planning can still go awry. This week we were mostly lucky: lots of powder snow, even good weather for a few hours and the social program with good food and a little too much alcohol was also extremely nice.
The extended weekend brought impressively long queues at the lifts and there were also an unusually large number of competitors in the deep snow. From the middle of the week it was rather quiet.
Off the slopes: I'll postpone this topic for another week or two. As soon as the first rainy days arrive, I'll have more time to write and talk to the locals about Fukushima and other topics. For now, let's just enjoy the powder and ignore the long-term weather forecast, which actually speaks of spring-like temperatures and lots of rain in 9 days' time.
