AS we approach mid-powder season, I thought it might be worth seeing how we're stacking up against the long-term averages.

AN avalanche claimed the life of a 66-year-old man from Sapporo last weekend on a mountain near Niseko, Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper reports.

Last Saturday (January 16) at about 3.40pm, the man was on a guided backcountry tour in a group of eight people and a guide at Shiribetsu-dake – a non-ski resort

UNLIKE many resorts around the world, large portions of the prodigious amounts of snow Niseko receives are not directly from storm fronts. Much of our powder arrives from what locals call the ‘Niseko Express’.

NEW independent daily video snow report The Daily Flake is keeping a lens on what's falling from the sky in Niseko this season.

THE most sustained snowfalls to hit Niseko in years have relentlessly belted the Hokkaido ski town with close to 3m of accumulated powder in the past week. 

NISEKO'S Hanazono resort officially opened today, with plenty of keen skiers and snowboarders up for first lifts the morning, gagging to hit powder that’s been accumulating since the flakes started falling.

HEAVY snowfalls the past couple of days primed Niseko's powdery slopes for the much-anticipated season opening today.

IT’S official. Tomorrow it will be game on for the 09-10 season!

At 8.30am tomorrow, the highly anticipated switching on of the lifts will finally take place, kicking off what will surely be another epic, powderiffic

TWO days and nights of heavy snow have instantly plunged Niseko in to winter, and pumped locals have already hiked up to score the first waist-deep tracks of the season.

The first snow of the season at village level fell on Saturday afternoon, with a centimeter or two settling before melting back on Sunday.

Overnight Sunday temperatures

WHILE snow dusted the top of the 1500m+ peaks around Niseko almost a month ago, the first snow fell at village level (250m) this afternoon.

Just after 1pm, reports came in to Powderlife of the first sight of falling snow for the season in Kutchan and at Annupuri.

Light snow fell across Niseko throughout