Originally Posted by
G-CIVC
I wanted to seek advice from the experts here - I booked for mid December (week of Dec 10th) but recent snow forecasts have made me quite worried - will I get to ski at all? Or Niseko should be generally safe/guaranteed even for December compared to other parts of the country?
Mindful that the 3 month cancelation window is approaching soon.....
Also saw some people staying this coming Winter already getting emails from the hotel on social media but they haven't reached out to me re restaurant reservations / ski lessons etc
I went to niseko the first week of December last year. It snowed buckets everyday, but the resorts treat early December like a soft opening. The majority of trails will not be open even if it looks like there is enough snow. This is very different from the NE where I grew up. Artificial snow is made and slopes open even without enough snow and if grass is showing.
The good thing is there are no crowds during that time and you can get tons of runs in. The downside is that most of the resort is not open, especially the more difficult runs at the top of the mountain. They opened the green ones first at the bottom. Some services like ski school for kids will not be open yet.
We also got kinda lucky because the day we landed there was no snow and then it started snowing for a week straight. You are risking there not being snow and if there is, not everything will be open. Even still, it was our first time to niseko and we had the best time. We hope to go back every winter but later in the season.