powder

CONSIDERED the Holy Grail of powder in Niseko, the strictly controlled Mizuno-no-Sawa is somewhere everyone should experience once.

Access to this powder haven in Niseko Village is strictly controlled. To be able to enter, you must first attend a 20 minute, ¥2,000 lecture on avalanche safety that is held twice daily (9:30

ANTICIPATING heavy snowfalls last night, we joined the crowds for some early morning runs.

Snowfalls were in the 20-30cm range in the village, which wasn’t too impressive, but still more than enough for fun.

As we queued at Centre Four in Niseko Grand Hirafu, the skies were blue, lulling us into a false sense

AT 8:30am this morning two of the lifts in Grand Hirafu started taking passengers for the first time this season. The Ace Quad Lift #2 was shuttling rabid passengers up to Ace Pair Lift #3.

First passenger was local lad, Tom Cason, and the eagerness that showed on his face as he rushed through the ticket gates is a good

MOST of us come to Niseko because of that most sought after commodity in the snow sports world – powder. It’s certainly not for weeks on end of bluebird days, that's for sure! What is it, though, that makes the powder here so good?

NISEKO has once again been belted by about two metres of light, fluffy powder in less than a week, making season 09/10 so far one to remember.

Cooler temperatures and consistent snow fronts have brought with them almost non-stop falls of up to 60cm in a single night on the mountain.

What makes it even better is that several times

AFTER a couple of days of lift closures due to extremely high winds of up to 70km/h, breezes dropped today and all chairs whirred back into action.

Following two days of either staying inside or really low on the mountain, white-out conditions were replaced by blue skies and no wind to speak of – a welcome greeting for

AFTER the deluge of snow that descended upon Niseko during the epic two-day New Year’s storm, all the backcountry gates are now open for business.

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 Village – a.k.a Higashiyama – officially opened today, with plenty of skiers and boarders rushing to the resort early for first tracks at almost six weeks worth of accumulated powder.

Every Niseko United resort is now running lifts, with Niseko Village's Gondola and the Country Road Chair both open for business. However, there

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.