SnowJapan – Snow Resort Reviews for Happo-one (58 in total)

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Snowboarder
READERS NAME:	diehardboarder
DATE VISITED:	Feb 2010
SNOW CONDITIONS:	packed powder
PROS:	Good food. Not crowded (for a weekend). Really nice staff. Big mountain with lots of varying terrain.
CONS:	none
REVIEW:	Mid week was warm and then starting to cool on Friday. Which usually means icy conditions so I wasn't expecting much. To my surprise, Happo-one had really good conditions (packed powder) and I had a great time. The staff was super friendly, the facilities (especially the restaurants) were great and the mountain is the most impressive I've seen on Honshu. Shiga Kogen is bigger but that's not really a fair comparison since Shiga Kogen consists of multiple mountains.

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Monday 1st February 2010, 1:47pm

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Skier
READERS NAME:	fireworld6666 Member Personal page here
DATE VISITED:	Feb 2009
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Sun, snow powder days
PROS:	Steeper terrain
CONS:	Not too much out of bounds areas without a big hike
REVIEW:	Great big mountain with steep areas, fast sking, crowds ok, except for the weekend bunch. We had sunny days on groomers and 3 big powder days in the 10 days we skied there. Get up early to get the powder as it is tracked out early. Why did they groom to top slopes? This would have added a lot more powder sking.

OTHER REVIEWS made by reader fireworld6666 (1 in total)

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Monday 23rd March 2009, :09pm

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Skier
READERS NAME:	powder rocks Member Personal page here
DATE VISITED:	last year (late febuary)
SNOW CONDITIONS:	small amount of snow
PROS:	Big mountain, good ski lifts, nice off piste
CONS:	Crap food, too many moguls, skiers are not allowed in the park
REVIEW:	I visited Happo-one last year for a weekend, and I found it pretty good; we went quite late in the season so there wasn't mass amounts of snow. The runs were nice long wide carving runs with a couple of nice tree to cut through. There looked like there were some good bowl but I didn't have the time or energy to ski them. we managed to find off piste but it was a little crusty. The guides there are fantastic, thanks to evergreen (the activity center) and the instructor was brilliant. The downsides of this mountain were that there were many irregular moguls which were awful to ski. The food on the mountain cantina was awful some crap curry but a lot of mountains can be like that. BUT the thing I hated most was the fact skiers were not allowed in the terrain park by the sky line lift, it was ludicrous. However despite these minor hiccups it is a great place to go skiing for the weekend I like it there!

OTHER REVIEWS made by reader powder rocks (5 in total)

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Saturday 24th January 2009, 7:56pm

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Skier
READERS NAME:	Brod Member Personal page here
DATE VISITED:	8/3/08 to 16/3/08
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Good 3.5m at top
PROS:	Good diverse terrain, no queues
CONS:	Nightlife a bit hard to find
REVIEW:	You can ski 7 mountains on the one ticket - but cant change during the day. Happo One and Hakuba 47 were the best. Tsugake was a bit flat but good for beginners/intermediates. Efficient lift systems, great people, good restaurants and onsens. The village is spread out and the shuttle bus had stopped the day before I arrived so it was a bit difficult getting around after dark. Apparently the skiing compares favourably with Niseko but not the village or nightlife. This will improve as more people discover this great little spot. The Japanese Alps are an awsome sight.

OTHER REVIEWS made by reader Brod (1 in total)

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Friday 4th April 2008, :18pm

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Snowboarder
READERS NAME:	ipps
DATE VISITED:	March 1st and 2nd
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Varied
PROS:	Really great fun for a strong beginner
CONS:	Skiers coming out of the blue to near kill you
REVIEW:	Preface: As said in the pros, im between beginner and intermediate so the review is pretty much aimed at that level, so with that in mind... Purely by chance me and my mates failed to get a nice place to stay near hakuba 47, so we're left with one choice. It was on the slopes of happo one, so we decided we might as well since it was just for a weekend. Arrived Saturday morning in awesome conditions. The snow just wouldn't stop. Got ready, went out and shot straight up the gondola. First problem, where to go? Stuff is really badly laid out if you dont know where youre going. Visibility was about 10 feet, but compounded to this the signs are kinda confusing. Trying to find a nice safe green run was too much like hard work, so we just pummeled down the nearest run. Turns out it was the Olympic 2 run. I'm sure on a normal day I'd be nursing my wounds and tripping over moguls, but the snow was just so deep you couldn't hurt yourself if you tried. Followed the run down into mogul hell, fell down the second third of the course, then at last arrived at a nice shallow green part. Really really great fun. Suddenly had control again, and was flying through nice powder. At this point we knew absolutely none of the mountain was really off limits for us, so just went up the first lifts we came to and down the first runs we saw. We had a complete ball. In fact, everyone on that mountain by the looks of it was having an awesome time. The runs were without question, interesting, varied, messy, chopped up, smooth, difficult, easy and all the bits in between. It was the first time id ever rode in those conditions, and I tell you, I'd probably pay a lot of money if I could do that again. I had such a blast that after kick out time I decided to go straight back out for a bit of night boarding. Frankly, dont bother, unless you have 2000 yen burning a hole in your pocket, or really really like doing a 1 minute ride down a ridiculously plain hill, save your cash and go out and enjoy the area. My mates who didnt come for the night boarding said it was really nice. Got up nice and early to beat the crowds on day 2. The sun was streaming, the view (finally!) was incredible and I could actually see how the mountain was supposed to look. We restricted ourselves entirely to the left hand side of the mountain because we had to catch our bus at 12. But it was no less interesting because of it. The day was spent for the most part playing with speed and a bit of control on steeps and getting through a couple of nasty mogul fields. The runs from what we saw (in their more organised condition) were really nice and varied. Run a nice steep, hit a choppy field. plough into some monster moguls, run a path, back onto some steeps, then some nice straightforward wide parts bringing you down to the bottom. Lots of great stuff to learn on for someone trying to push through carving and onto intermediate level. The reviews on this site often portray happo one as a skiers mountain. It probably is, I had my fair share of terrifyingly fast loons coming out of nowhere and steaming past me. I also had more than my fill of chopped up, mogully runs, but really as with spiders, they're more scared of you than you are of them, you just blindly pummel down the mountain, whilst they wonder what ridiculous change of direction you're going to pull off next, or what spectacular fall you're about to pull off when you bounce over the next mogul. :) sorry skiers ;) Overall I had a brilliant time. No doubt that was because of the white out on the saturday, but the next day was also a great learning experience. There is just so much variation in each run that someone moving towards intermediate can really put so many techniques theyve learned to good use and never get bored. Fabulous fun and I'd recommend it to anyone: skier or boarder.

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Sunday 2nd March 2008, 10:30pm

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Snowboarder
READERS NAME:	Brett Dennis
DATE VISITED:	12th - 18th Feb 2008
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Powder ahoy - deep, shallow, light, heavy, untracked, chopped. Runs varied from groomed to mogulish nightmares. Icy on last day.
PROS:	Big mountain, heaps of vertical, large amounts of easily accessible side and backcountry.
CONS:	Skiers mountain, disorganised, under-utilization of available resources, mongrel moguls.
REVIEW:	Unhappo Oh-no!!!! Coming here with much excitement and expectation, I was somewhat dissapointed by the actual resort itself, allegedly the 'grand centrepiece' of the Hakuba Valley. Certainly, a big area with shedloads of vertical and spectacularly backdropped by the Japan Alps, the mountain has plenty going for it. Snowfall couldn't really be faulted, hucked down for five days and nights, didn't see much until last two days. However the way in which Happo is run really seemed to hamstring the place. From the start it seemed as those Happo had remained in a time warp, trying to retain the glory days of the 98 olympics. It seemed as though a massive amount of resources and infrastructure had been forced onto a mountain where the terrain didn't really lend itself to a ski resort and was done in a fairly adhoc fashion with much of it laying idle and scattered randomly acroos the slopes. Partially dismantled lifts swung in the wind, various disused buildings across the mountain being consumed by snow and fleets of snowcats frozen into the hillside. On top of this the various 'slope stabilization\' constructions across the mountain made it seem like some kind of mad engineers playground and really took away from the mountain experience. And then there was the lift ticket and transport system. After the smooth operations at Niseko, the Happy 7 pass proved to be anything but. Stay a one hill for the entire day, only redeem your coupons one at a time ensuring lots of time wasted each morning, walk to this lift, traverse to that, lifts start late, finish early, try to extract some information about other resorts in the valley or bus times. Good luck!! Onto the riding. Well it's been said Unhappo's a skiers hill, I agree. Miles of runs, but really pretty boring terrain for boarders with little variety or features and flaming moguls to Mongolia on anything half steep. With the mountain quite busy, the main runs became chopped sui within a few hours each morning and most of the good stuff had permanent knee high moguls that even seemed to have good skiers flailing. To add further insult, many of the remaining unmoguled pistes were regularly closed off for ski races, if they like moguls so much why don't they race on them. With the resources of this resort, I would have thought they could clean up some of the runs throughout the day when busy, or at least have some of the steeper stuff free of moguls. Most of the staff I saw on the hill were either fast asleep or smoking up a storm. Off-piste? A bit more joy, with a few short tree runs and some entertaining powder stashes but not much considering the scale of this mountain. Endless man-made obstacles and hazards hiding in the powder as well. In summary, I felt Happo needed a good overhaul of almost the entire operation. Considering the price of the lift ticket I'd head elsewhere in the valley unless using the lifts for backcountry access.

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Sunday 24th February 2008, 2:14pm

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Skier
READERS NAME:	Craig
DATE VISITED:	Jan 27, 2008
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Soft packed on machine-groomed runs
PROS:	Snow was good, trying to attract foreign community
CONS:	Like being in a time warp back 20 years ago
REVIEW:	I've got to give Happo-one, and all of Hakuba, points for trying to attract the foreign community. From 2000 yen pitchers "for foreigners only" to English-speaking staff and signage throughout the village, it is clear that the village is trying very hard to attract foreign tourists. Having said that, Happo is seriously lacking for the newschool/freeride crowd. Some places in the backcountry looked like they would be good, but I wouldn't do it withough a guide. The runs are all groomed or moguls, and there was only a limited amount of tree skiing available. There was no park, kickers, or features anywhere, and the patrons made me feel like I'd stepped into a time machine and warped back 20 years ago. Most of the patrons were in either flourescent 1 piece suits and/or in stretchies, and were all trying to go after "perfect parallel turns" and what-not. The thing that was most frustrating was that it appeared that even the natural features had been removed - there wasn't much in terms of lips, stumps, or humps that could facilitate any decent air, which made it feel very artificial/man-made. Happo and Hakuba as a whole does have the potential to join the up-and-coming group of Japanese resorts that are coming on to the international stage, but they need to start modernizing the mountain in terms of terrain and features before they get there.

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Tuesday 29th January 2008, 10:38am

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Snowboarder
READERS NAME:	SamuiKitsune
DATE VISITED:	Saturday, January 26, 2008
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Had not snowed in a couple of days. Icy conditions at top and bottom of some runs.
PROS:	Wide open runs.
CONS:	Wide open runs. No controlled off-piste like Niseko.
REVIEW:	My first visit to Happo-One was on Saturday, January 26, 2008 before the SJ Hakuba Party Gathering. We boarded the mountain from about 9am to 4pm. Happo-One is a huge blank canvas of snow. Most of the runs are huge and wide without any type of trees to border the boundaries. This can be bad news given that there are many, many skiers that are extremely fast. The skiers on Happo-One are by far the fastest I have seen on the slopes in Japan. The trees along the edges and narrower runs would be a great regulator of the speed. Happo-One seems to be two mountains split into a western half and an eastern half. If you end up on the eastern half you will need to take a couple of lifts up to get back over to the western half. You cannot skate or ski across the base, because of running water. The snow conditions were not ideal at the time of our visit. We were told it had not really snowed in a few days. Also, that the top lifts had been closed on the day prior. We found out why when we reached the top. Snow dusted ice caps from the top lift all the way down to the next lift.

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Tuesday 29th January 2008, 10:37am

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

RESORT NAME:	Happo-one, Nagano	Snowboarder
READERS NAME:	Ben
DATE VISITED:	Dec 28 2006 to Jan 13 2007
SNOW CONDITIONS:	Big variety over three weeks
PROS:	Huge resort, patrols aren't strict
CONS:	Lifts don't link up well
REVIEW:	It was a slow start to the year, out of three weeks we got about five or six days of really good snow and many days where we had to head west to find better snow. Happo offered better variety than any other resorts in the area, with some great fringe runs on the edge of the pistes. When the powder did come down it was sensational, especially on the Champion C black run and the Skyline run. The top of the mountain was a bit too windblown to be any good, but if you had calm conditions it would offer a very long run to the village. The west side of the resort was our favourite, with challenging runs under the quad and a great carving slope under the number 3 pair. There is also a cool curry house at the bottom of one of the triples. The central slopes were a bit bare and crowded by comparison. We hit a few chair runs and went between the zig zags on the link road but no hassles from the patrol, unlike most resorts in Hakuba. Probably the worst apspect of the resort is that heading up from the mid slopes you often have to walk a long way uphill to get to the next lift. We were told it's because there are two lift companies and they couldn't agree where to start and stop the lifts. Hakuba is a bit dull, but the 'N bar' near the Mominoki hotel is a cheery little izakaya and our hosts at Morino lodge were great fun too. The main problem with most places was they closed early or didn't open at all. We found one cool bar called Overdrive which was closed almost every night. Overall a great resort that you can spend a week in without getting bored, so long as it's a good season. Also an easy bus ride to 47.

OTHER REVIEWS of Happo-one Resort (58 in total)

READER JOURNALS submitted about Happo-one Resort (82 in total)

READER PHOTOS submitted of Happo-one Resort (792 in total)

This Resort Review was submitted : Tuesday 31st July 2007, 0:35am

HAPPO-ONE - READER RANKINGS (Vote Here)
GENERAL SCORE	SNOW CONDITIONS	COURSES TERRAIN	LIFT SYSTEM	APRES SKI
77 ( 151 votes)	75 ( 151 votes)	78 ( 147 votes)	73 ( 147 votes)	68 ( 145 votes)

Main SnowJapan.Com Resort Reviews page

Page 1 Of 6