January in Japan

This report contains a series of photos sent by Rosco that show how much snow the off piste still needs in Niseko and then what he found on a day trip to the secret resort.

Snow begins to accumulate in the tree forks

And on those trees without forks

But not enough to cover the sasa grass ...

Which is still sticking out a lot

Even the baby pines are presenting tight slalom skiing

When the off piste snow is poor there's time to break out your new fashion gear ;-)

And there are always other things to do and see

Then it began (note blue sky background)

And it got better

And it doesn't get much better than this

Rosco reports 50cm+ of fresh on his day trip away from Niseko, until they had to hike out in 70cm deep snow.

More soon as the photos keep rolling in from the teams in Niseko and Rusutsu.