This just in from our friends at Kuro-Dake… things are looking good for their plans to open on Nov 6, once again aiming to be Japan’s first ski lift in operation for the season. They are reporting 40 cm accumulation at their base with temperatures locked below freezing at the base station (1100 m ASL). This picture from their staff says it all:

Kuro-dake Base Station, 2 Nov 2009: 40 cm!

The news you powder hounds have been waiting for! All Hallow’s Eve has become bitterly cold, with the mercury at -2 C and dropping. At 5:00 pm we saw the first specks of white and within 20 minutes later it is coming down non-stop.

Update - check the photo gallery below for daily updates.

Stani, living in Furano’s sister city of Schladming, Austria just sent these amazing photos of an early snow season. They have over 120 snow guns at Schladming but it looks like they only needed a few of them to complete this picture…

Check out the discussion and more amazing photos on ski.com.au.

Bitterly cold rain swept through the Furano valley yesterday evening, and this morning rain clouds lifted to reveal snow on Nishi-dake. The snow line is now just over 1000 m, which means that the next flakes to fall are likely to land on the upper ski slopes. I was hoping to get up with the Furano Mountaineering Club and hike the traverse to Nishi-dake’s peak next weekend, but it looks like the climb may be called off due to early winter. You can see last year’s hike here.

The view from our front steps this morning. From Furano Autumn 2009 Scenery

Clouds are stubbornly sticking to the Tokachi range, Taisetsuzan seems to be getting even more snow! You can also check our weather page for a live webcam of the ski hill, just in case we get a surprise dump at ground level here.

Snowfalls on the moutains are very early this year, hopefully we have a great start to the Furano ski season in store.