Ryuoo part 3

[ippy 66]

After two awesome reviews (dynas and BMs) i realised i hadnt really brought this over, so here is the long winded review of ryuoo that no one wants or needs!

 

"Jesus ipps, you've just spammed the hell out of us with the shiga review. Can you give us a bit of a break, mate?" I hear you all imply. But fear not, this is probably gonna be smallish.

 

Where?:

Ryuoo Ski park, Kita shiga Kogen, Nagano, Japan.

When?:

February 22nd and 23rd 2011

Map:

Ticket Info:

4000 for 1 day, 7000 for 2 days, or 50,000 for a season pass.

Details here: http://www.ryuoo.com/price/

Accessibility:

Fairly easy. Drive to nakano then head to kita shiga kogen and follow the massive billboards. OR get the train to yudanaka and then pick up the shuttle bus from there. OR easier still, get the shinkansen to nagano, then at 9.20 go to bus stop 3 and catch the bus there. Costs about 1200 each way.

Who?: 4 years, stays out of the park but runs in the trees.

Snow Conditions?: There was a layering about a week before, but you wont find it on the groomers. Off piste had some decent depth, but often times was heavy and wet. The steeps were somewhat choppy.

Resort Facilities?: Pretty threadbare. A few big rental shops, a combini, an information center at the very bottom, and a few scattered restaurants. It's fairly small but you'll find most of what you'll need. All but one of the lifts were open when i went (due to a significant crack along valley 5 - a shame because when you're in the valley area, it's the only real spot of advanced terrain). The liufts connect up fine. It's a bit of a pain in the ass having to ride several lifts up what looks like a fairly straight top to bottom line, but what you gonna do?

Anything Else?:Yeah, one thing. Ryuoo always have these AMAZING deals going on. If you pop to this site here, you can see them: http://www.ryuoo.net/hotel/free.html

Basically you can score a hotel room, a day pass, and breakfast and dinner for a ridiculously low 7000 yen. The only trouble is, they have absolutely no English support and it requires a minimum of two people. So if you want this deal and can't wingding, then try what i did: Turn up to the information center, point out the deal to the dude (if you cant speak any japanese then you might need to print it out so you can at least point to it), and see if he'll phone up and score you somewhere. I ended up with 11,000 for break/lunch, a 3 bed room to myself and a 2 day lift pass. Pretty neat i thought! Oh, did i mention that almost every single hotel involved in this deal are ski in/ski out?

 

The Review:

 

Ryuoo is a mountain in three parts. At the bottom is a nice gentle valley. It's nice and long, has a fairly decent gradient so you can still pick up a bit of speed on it, is wide and open, and ultimately is IDEAL for beginners. It also has a nice little park with a few boxes and rails and a couple of small kickers. It finally has something very few other places have - a bag jump Still, for the most part this is nice cruising/beginner friendly terrain. As mentioned, the only lift accessing anything approaching advanced terrain was closed at the time, so to me this place is stamped in my mind as a cruising/ski school spot. It is, as i say rather long, so you have a lot of space to yourself to just doink around, but if this was all there was you'd be going home a little underwhelmed.

 

(one of only 2 pictures i have of the valley area )

 

I spent the second morning here under the erroneous impression that the middle gates weren't open until midday, and i have to say it got old really quick. The constant moving from lift to lift was annoying as hell, and the terrain felt pretty damn tedious once you had your legs in. Having had the pleasure of very peed off beginners in my party though, I recognise the importance to them of seeing the end point where they can take a break, so this place would be genuinely IDEAL for anyone taking their first turns. The gradients are mellow and increase very slowly to the point that marked red runs would likely be straightforward green runs elsewhere. Alas this means intermediates might feel a bit underwhelmed (unless they happen to love the park).

 

So lets hop on the ropeway and get the hell out of here:

 

(heres that second picture )

 

The ropeway leaves every twenty minutes, and the queues get long, FAST. It seats about 160 people and so long as you're inside the building (or just outside it), chances are you'll be getting on that bus. The carriages run on the hour, at 20 past and 20 to. I'm pretty sure they could speed the damn process up what with having two of the bloody things and it only taking about 8 minutes each way, but what do i know about ropeway safety?

 

Anyway at the top of the ropeway you have three real choices. 1) take the lift to the very top. 2) go back down on the ropeway, or 3) ride down. Surprisingly option 3 is not the default choice you might think it is, but i guess we'll come to that in a minute. Instead I'll tell you a bit about the top.

 

The top is a little fluffy powder stash. Its got lots of cute trees and is INCREDIBLY flat. Id say the average for the whole area (which comprises some three or four runs) is about 10 degrees. Its super gentle which makes it quite difficult to ride for a lot of beginners. There will be problems with maintaining speed and there will be a lot of unclipping. It's kinda fun, and kinda nice, and certainly youd want to visit it, but it also comes with the burden of having to take a small chairlift to get back up to the ropeway station. This means you cant ride from the top all the way down unfortunately. Still, the view is nice, the powder is good fun, and its nice and mellow meaning you can kill a bit of time here if the gates happen to be closed.

 

(Playing up by the trees at the top of ryuoo).

 

 

(i love this dude, he was chuckling to himself about the gopro with a face of "whatever will these crazy kids think of next!???")

 

So thats the top. Its nice, but its hardly worth yammering about. A definite place to just chill out and have a relaxing hot chocolate and maybe take it all in, but not really somewhere youd go out of your way for the terrain.

 

So that leaves options 2 and 3: get back on the ropeway and ride the lift down, or man up, strap in and slay the dragon! Well, a review of a resort where you get back on the lift and ride the ropeway down isn't much of a review, so this leaves the last section of the mountain. And in this case I have really saved the best to last.

 

I don't want to go over the top here, but this is quite simply:

 

THE GREATEST ON PISTE RUN IVE EVER RIDDEN.

 

If i told you my favourite day of the season (a season that included some crazy powder drops and some really fun lines with some really cool people) was just me, all on my own in this small poky resort with only one real line, you'd think i was making it up. Well let me tell you straight up, this place is awesome and it's almost 100% based on this one ridiculous run.

 

For someone in their fourth year of riding who hasn't really had the joy of riding insane BC lines, sure i might be egging the pudding a little here, but for me this run topped everything that's come before it. Its also pretty entertaining as a bystander watching people lose their edge and slide about 200 meters before smacking into crash barriers

 

Beginners are strongly advised against riding it and theres an announcement in the gondola (which i may have misundertood) that people with rental boards should probably not go down it. Indeed my mate on his second day a few years back told me about him and his group being shouted at by ski patrol and told to come back

 

I'm looking at the gradient on the ryuoo website and there's nothing that makes me believe those details. You look down and it looks like a pretty decent drop. You look back up and it looks like you just rode a vertical wall.

 

The thing is a joy from start to finish.

 

So let me take you through what you can expect on course b. (i rode course c once and wasnt a big fan. Its just a long windy ice path with some trees at either side but usually on banks making it tough to get in there).

 

(bit of a queue at the start of the run when they open the gates)

 

At the top you have a narrow steep path. It travels a fair distance and is usually the undoing of most people. Its icy, bumpy, and fast.

 

(that ice, those bumps, and since i can never quite capture the steepness in my pics, you'll have to go there yourself to see why its fast )

 

Flanking it on either side are some trees. I always avoided the wall and popped in the trees. The powder is a bit nicer, you dont kill your feet and knees from the constant bumping and its all round just a lot friendlier (if a little steeper). If you go skiers left stay near the piste because it loops round to the right.

 

(looking back up to the ropeway from the trees on skiers left)

 

If however you pop into the trees on the skiers right, you'll come to the line directly under the ropeway. This is way steeper than the b course since its just a straight plummet to the bottom, but because its not part of the official course its still got a fairly sound covering. Obviously theres no avi control here so you need to be cautious and make sure you have your anchors, ski patrol were very adamant that it was "zetaii dame!" and stupidly dangerous to ride (despite the tonnes of tracks on it by the way). Alas i have no pics of this, but in BMs review is a picture im probably going to link up here that shows this very clearly as well as providing a really good view of what this entire section is talking about.

 

(looking back up to the ropeway station just before the first stage of the run shallows out a bit).

 

Assuming we rode course b though and didnt dive in under the ropeway, as youre nearing the bottom of the first part it shallows out just enough to give you the chance to open up and charge. Here you have two real choices: 1. Follow the course round the bend and into the start of the halfpipe, or 2. Blast up into the trees and play in the powder. Well, being a crazed powder hound theres only really one option, so its up into the trees!

 

(up in the trees)

 

For the next five or so minutes of your ride you get to play in relatively untracked steep powder just riding up and down this line. Its enormously good fun and has some of the best tree riding i've had the pleasure of enjoying. Since youre effectively riding a ridge line (you could conceivably hit that ridge and pop out over the back of it bringing you into the beginners area further down the mountain by the way - but i wasnt personally that brave), it means you can drop right down to the designated course and then ride flat across to bring you almost back up to the top. Its genuinely great fun. Up and down, up and down, bombing through the pretty much untracked pow and pretty steep gradients. What more could you want?

 

Eventually though it's time to pop back down onto the rest of course b, and this is where you get another welcome surprise: the fastest natural halfpipe ive ever seen.

 

(up at the top before it becomes a serious little chute)

 

 

This thing is huge. Coupled to the gradient of this ride, you will be bombing up and down these walls with no bother at all. These walls are fast, lightning fast, and no matter who you are you're going to have a great time riding up and down them.

 

(sitting on top of one of the walls waiting for the dude under me to ride off).

 

The end of the pipe ride is the end of part 2 of this run. The pipe mellows out and once again you can just point your deck straight down and bomb it. You will now find yourself spat back into the valley, only you'll be carrying some serious speed. This makes the last part of the run a really nice bomb down the groomers to the ropeway (and up and down some walls at the side of it) turning what is in effect a green run into a much more fun pseudo red run for a while. Alternatively, you can just cruise into the park, then into the air bag (if youre up for it) and finally onto the ropeway to do it all again.

 

(looking back at the run from the middle of the main valley area. Note the two white waterfalls cutting through the mountain, the back one is run under the ropeway i was talking about, and the front one is firther down inside the trees (and looks way too freaking dangerous to risk if you ask me)).

 

 

All in all this run is about a fifteen to twenty minute run that will definitely test or (more enjoyably) let you play with every part of your riding and technique. Its a joy from start to finish and has the complete package for everyone who wants something to really sink their teeth into.

 

Conclusion:

 

I love this run. And it's odd talking about a resort as just the one run (well, variations on a theme of one run), but really that's pretty much Ryuoo for me. Even if the place was filled with a stack more terrain it wouldn't matter because i'd probably just spend my time hitting the B line (or the airbag if i was here for a long time).

 

Outside of that run (well, that, the line under the ropeway and run C i guess), theres not really much else to do on ryuoo, and thats possibly why by the end of day 2 i was feeling like id had my fill a bit. For a really short trip it will blow your head off. You won't honestly know whats hit you, but for a longer trip youd have to start finding ways to keep yourself entertained.

 

Still, as i say, the ridge line is tantalising close and it does bring you through some pretty awesome looking tree riding into the resort - so long as you hit your connectors (theres a small stream so youll have to make sure you cross at the right place) and there is a decent amount of pretty gnarly terrain around the area in general, so with a solid party you might be able to stretch it out a bit. Still chances are it'll nevertheless get pretty old fast and you'll be wanting to hit something a little more diverse. Hell, just one morning spent in the valley because i mistakenly thought the gate for B and C didnt open until 12.30 (they close gate c around 12, and open gate b around 12.30 once theyve done the barrier and rope checks), had me tearing my hair out.

 

Nevertheless, day 1 on Ryuoo was far and away the best day I had this season and the course itself stands as the benchmark by which i complain and whine about every other piste run being dull and uninspiring. Effectively it's single handedly destroyed my ability to look at any isolated run objectively since i can pretty much guarantee i'll be thinking 'its alright, but its not as good as ryuoo'.

 

If you're in the area, have a day or two to kill, and are starting to get a bit comfortable with your tree riding, you HAVE to hit it. No ifs nor buts. This course is MUST RIDE stuff. Nothing, and i mean nothing was a more challenging exciting ride for me than Ryuoos ropeway area. Out of ten, im giving ryuoo the tufnel award:

 

[Mick Rich 78]

Thanks for the review Ippy - an entertaining read, as always!

 

I'd planned to visit Ryuoo on my way back from Furano but missed out on it - gutted, especially as I had a free lift ticket burning a hole in my pocket! Next year me thinks!

[ippy 66]

pics added, and heres that blackmountain pic im talking about which really shows the whole run in one nice all encompassing view:

 

 

In the bottom left hand corner of the pic is the start of b course. That choppy icy terrain kinda shows you the line down. follow that line doen to the ridge line and thats part 1. You can then follow the course round to the right as most people do and head towards the halfpipe, or you can nip into those trees (or of course you can actually try and hit the ridge itself and ride over if youre really mental). In the review i went into that awesome little wall of trees, and popped down usually just after you cross that part cut in for the ropeway.

 

Smack bang in the middle of the pic is the run under the ropeway. As you can see it brings you out around teh same place id usually cut back in and was pretty much a straight plummet. If my memory serves me right there was a natural barrier with a really serious drop at the very end of it so you have to cut into the trees on skiers left near the bottom of that ride. Obviously its not controlled so do be careful if you decide to ride it

 

anyway, both options bring you right into the heart of the pipe before spitting you out back into the valley. You can just make out the point in the piture, if the picture was a map, it would be around (65,60) (assuming (0,0) is the top left corner and (100,100) is the bottom right). Then its just a straight charge back down to the ropeway and waiting 15 minutes because you missed the last one by a few minutes

 

 

[Jynxx 4]

Cool man !

 

[muikabochi 208]

Thanks for that ippy!

Next season.

[rider69 18]

Ryuo has and always will be a little tree sking gem

[gibbsy 0]

Really keen to hit this joint! How hard is it to sort out accomodation/lift packages? (Nihongo uma kunai) couldnt get any english out of the link..... will suss it out once in Japan

[gibbsy 0]

How far is it from Nozawa?

[iiyamadude 6]

Not far and easy if you go by car.

 

In fact, I just made this for you:

 

http://www.snowjapan...velMode=DRIVING

 

So, 23.3km.

 

This Route Finder thing really is very useful. Took all of 30 seconds to do that.

 

http://www.snowjapan...oute-finder.php

 

[nswindler 0]

Great review. Sometimes all it takes is a great run to make a memorable day!

[Mick Rich 78]

& getting stoked reading this as I'm heading there this week!!!