It’s hard to add any photos of this day because there was absolutely NO visibility and it dumped snow harder than any us of have ever experienced. It was snowing, by our calculations 4” per hour, only in Japan. There were a lot of “Arregatos” shouted from beneath the powder on this day. I can’t remember any turns that were not faceshots, perhaps the deepest snow I have ever skied. Grand Hirafu was not operating fully today, only the lower lifts were open as there was no visibility. All the out of bounds stuff remained closed. In full Niseko style, it was freezing cold and blustery. We enjoyed long ramen noodle lunches and coffees to warm up in the Ace Hill Lodge on Grand Hirafu, and then headed back out and skied until dark which was a crazy experience. I haven’t heard so much whooping and hollering as we had today, no one was disappointed and as our friend Dave Metsky said, another great one-liner, “it was persistant in its failure to suck!” Don’t be surprised if you’re skiing Grand Hirafu and see several Ultimate Groove stickers gracing the lift towers, it wasn’t me!!!

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