Resorts lying

[yodel 0]

Here's what Kagura said on their blog today:

 

天気は最高！雪質最高！ゲレンデも最高！

 

If the snow conditions are now "saikou", as they say, does that mean that they are at their best possible? I really do not think so.

 

That's just one exampl. Some resorts are renowned for lying, exaggerating about conditions and just plain forgetting to mention when things aren't good, but it's just really annoying.

 

I just wanted to say that.

[tsondaboy 0]

That phrase is up in their blog since the day they opened last week. They haven’t renewed that part but have posted picks from yesterday and from the looks of them, the slopes don’t look really attractive.

[neversummer 0]

It is common for all resorts to 'exaggerate' their reporting and to glorify even the smallest details to get people into their resorts.

 

Saying that, it is very frustrating for people making the effort to travel to places based upon the official resort data to find out when they get there that is is all a load of bollocks.

 

Places like the SJ Forums are probably the best indication of what the snow is really like and there seem to be enough people living in resort of travelling regularly to the resorts to get an accurate analysis.

 

The NOW Reports are pretty good if you ask me.

[JA2340 16]

 Originally Posted By: neversummer

It is common for all resorts to 'exaggerate' their reporting and to glorify even the smallest details to get people into their resorts.

And, not just the Japanese resorts, Take a look at some od=f the Australian ones to see "creative snow depth" and extremely imaginative reporting of conditions.

As NS said, it is all intended to get more people there, rather than somewhere else. Does it work?? Dunno, but I guess the PR people can convince the bean counters that it does ...

[Kumapix 0]

My local resort listed having a halfpipe on their website for 2-3 years after they stopped building it. they might still list it!

[indosnm 0]

Now reports go by the resort reports don't they?

(I'm talking for bases etc)

[SnowJapan 178]

Only for snow depth -- we can't go out and make our own measurements every morning. That's why we usually mention how many new cm there has been at town level and on tops of cars etc, to give people a real idea of what is happening.

 

Everything else is from observations and most definitely not just what resorts report.

 

It is very important to us that our reports tell it "like it is" - the good and the bad.

 

We have sometimes even got strong complaints from, been threatened by and had rather heated discussions with certain resorts who didn't like us being so truthful when things were not good... but we will continue to do that and they can just learn to live with it.

 

It felt quite strange being asked by a company to refrain from posting the reality and in it's place post lies on our site. They really seemed to think that they were in the right. It's not as if we were saying incorrect things either - just the reality.

 

(Some resorts don't like our new Rankings section either....)

[NoFakie 45]

The Japanese quoted from Kagura is merely very enthusiastic. And why not because its been a long wait! Noone is going to take it literally. They could do with updating it a bit more often though.

 

Saying stuff is open that isn't or that you have a halfpipe/creche/telemark lessons/etc. when you don't is big no-no.

[joshnii 2]

Kagura in particular can often be extremely economical with the truth and just don't update - even mid-season - when the only thing they could say would be not positive. They were just being enthusiastic on that particular report though as you said Mr Wiggles.

[NoFakie 45]

Okay, I get the picture. Nowt wrong with "saikou" as "great" though. Its what normal people say.

[skidaisuki 0]

SJForums - please, please keep it up, I say. That's the great, great value of this site - there are enough posters up in the mountains to cut through all the B.S. that some of the resorts put out, especially in the popular resorts like Kagura.

 

The 'spin' of the resorts also helps to explain why there aren't high definition webcams set up at so many places, which if you think about it would be the obvious way to communicate how 'saiko' their conditions are.

 

In my view, it isn't in their interest for the resorts to push it too much, because when people find that they've been blatently lied to unless other considerations get in the way then the punters will vote with their feet and not come back.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Good on you SJF, I know from experience how innaccurate reports ruin a day's riding. Back home I used to read the snow reports on Teletext and one day a huge dump of snow was forecast to fall at night, meaning that the next day's riding should be awesome. We were gonna decide on the morning which one of 2 places to hit but they were miles apart, so it was a case of putting all our chickens into oe basket. we read the report and decided on the furthest away one and headed out there, half way across the country. Lo and behold the conditions were shite and the reports blatant lies and to compound that we bumped into some friends later who went to the other place and they said that the conditions were awesome and not so many people....Doh!!!

[cheeseman 1]

Resorts should also appeal to cheesefans by telling them about cheese that is available at the resorts, rather than just the info (and lies) about snow depth and weather.

[tsondaboy 0]

I know at least 1 resort (wont tell the name) that was lying about its cheese.

They were serving people cheap Kraft grinded cheese for Italian Parmesan.

[neversummer 0]

There is good squid ink Camembert cheese from Furano. I had some the other night but with the postage it was a little pricey.

[Mike Pow 52]

I'll second that. Delicious.

 

And there is fabulous Camembert ice cream from the Cheese Factory at the junction of 343 and 66.