Where to find good snow around Christmas / New Years?

Has anyone been snowboarding around Christmas / New Years? I was thinking about heading to Whistler, but I don’t know how good the conditions will be. If you’ve been somewhere around this time of year please tell me about your experience!! I need ideas

You’ll be fine in Japan, ask the other kids here about Whistler around that time because I’m not sure..

PS. Welcome to BW!

Thanks Billy! What areas in Japan would you recommend? Do they generally have good snow around that time?

Ah the million dollar question!

I know a bunch of people who have Christmas in Niseko each year (including Billy!)

I have worked two seasons in Nth America and both season we skied on Christmas, most of the resort was open.

You just have to remember it like their June (am guessing you are and aussie so you know what our early season snow is like) and so the snow is not at its best!

Sad fact is that I think you can’t guarantee ‘good snow’ anywhere at xmas. Most Nthn hemi big resorts around the world should be open and good snow is definitely possible…Its just that there isn’t really anywhere its ‘guaranteed’ at that time of year (unfortunately!)

My money would be on Hokkaido to produce ridable pow around Xmas/new year!!!!!

Whether or not there’s a base down is the questionable part!!!!!

Yeah sorry when I say Japan, I mean Hokkaido!

Whistler was shocking last year. If you’re thinking Canada, definitely look more at Revelstoke, Fernie, Big White or Banff which can be a bit more consistent in the early season. Whistler tends to have a bit higher temperatures and has a lower base than other resorts and therefore is less likely to have top to bottom snow than other resorts which sit higher.

The other issue is queue times at Whistler. If it’s not top to bottom, be prepared to wait in a queue to get on the gondola to get from the village to the areas with snow. On opening day, this was 2h+ to get up and there was queues (not as long) for weeks afterwards.

By all means, I’m not against Whistler at all and totally want to get there for at least a few days shredding sometime soon but I feel in your situation, you’d have a better time going to one of the more inland resorts

Working at whistler this last Christmas was freaking mental.. Huge lines and not really a lot going on in terms of good snow. That’s not to say there wasn’t any but you were hard pressed to get at it first and you need to get right into the high alpine to do that. Locals were telling me that it was really unusual for the low snowfall this last year so fingers crossed this year will be epic.

That being said the atmosphere in whistler is amazing at Christmas with lots of things going on off the slopes which is pretty important considering the lifts closed at 4.

In Japan, head high… Kurodake (Hokkaido) should have good snow, but its a different type of resort than you’d be used to.
Otherwise, some places on Honshu could be OK at the time…like Kagura.
In Japan, they could have a massive storm at the end of December that leaves over a metre on the ground