Review: Ski Resort Minakami Norn

[dyna8800 3]

Thanks to Snow Japan, I got a ticket to Norn in the Minakami area of Gunma Prefecture. Here is a review.

 

Photos to follow!

 

Ski Resort Minakami Norn

 

Norn is conveniently located just 3 km. from Minakami IC off the Kanetsu Highway. This close proximity of the resort makes it very accessible, without the long mountain road drives required to reach many other resorts in the area.

 

Another selling feature of the resort would be the long operating hours, extended on the weekend days. On Saturday, the resort opens at 7 am, and with night skiing, it stays open until midnight! On Sundays and holidays, it operates until 10 pm. For families, there is a daycare room called Snow Kids, where the children can play inside supervised while the parents play outside.

 

Trails and Lifts

 

The resort is small, with only 5 marked trails, unimaginatively named A, B, C, D, and E and 4 lifts, with about 400 meters of vertical. The longest run is 1,080 meters.

 

A is the toughest advanced run, with maximum incline of 30 degrees and averaging 22 degrees.

B is another advanced trail, maximum 26 degrees with average 13 degrees.

A and B are serviced by Quad #1 lift.

C is a beginner trail that starts out steep and flattens out. Maximum is 21 degrees with 14 degrees average.

B and C are serviced by Quad #1 lift and Pair #4 lift.

D is another beginner run that is the longest trail, 1,080 meters with maximum 19 degrees and 13 degrees average.

E is marked as an intermediate and beginner trail, with the top two thirds having steeper dropoffs and the bottom third suitable for beginners. Also, Pair #2 lift is a really slow lift, good for beginners. The maximum incline for E is 23 degrees with an average of 14 degrees.

D and E are serviced by Quad #3 lift.

The beginner part of E, the lower third, is serviced by Pair #2 lift.

 

There is night skiing on runs D and E.

 

Facilities

 

Transportation

 

There is a free shuttle bus that goes from Norn to and from the various onsen and minshuku in the area, and Minakami station. There is also a bus that goes to Jomo Kogen station on the shinkansen line, but requires advance reservation.

 

Parking

 

There are several parking lots. When we arrived, A and B (150 and 200 cars, respectively) were full, and we parked in C (200 cars). There was also a huge lot D (250 cars) below that. In parking lot C, there are some small portable houses that serve as dressing rooms as well as a portable toilet. Apparently, there are some additional lots E and F (150 cars each) which are further down the hill. Total capacity is 1100 cars. Like many other resorts, they do not charge for parking, even on the weekends.

 

Ski Center (Center House)

 

The main building, Center House, has an escalator that takes you up to the first floor where there are locker and dressing rooms, toilets, daycare center Snow Kids, a gift shop Telemark, and a food court with ramen, fast food, and pizza.

 

The second floor has a rental shop, the ski/snowboard school, tune up shop, a mini gift shop, information desk, and cafeteria Troll. The cafeteria has everything from ramen/pasta dishes to rice dishes such as katsu curry and omelette rice. I liked how they had two varieties of curry, mild as well as spicy.

 

Lift Tickets

 

There are a variety of tickets available, one day from opening until 5 pm, 4 hour ticket, early bird from 7 to 10 am, super afternoon from 10 am to 5 pm, twilight from 2 pm to 9 pm, night time from 4:30 pm until 10 pm, night time from 4:30 pm to midnight, single use ticket, and 11 ride ticket. You can purchase the lift ticket corresponding to almost exactly when you would like to start and stop!

 

There is a special coupon on the website which is also available in English. For an adult one day ticket including a 1,000 yen voucher for lunch, and 500 yen voucher, the package price is 4,700 yen, a 5,700 yen value.

 

Mountain Impressions

 

For a little mountain, the resort had a pretty good variety of everything. The statistics indicate that about half the visitors are skiers and the other half are snowboarders.

 

With the beginner slopes averaging 13 to 14 degrees, it was a little steep for complete beginners. But for intermediates, this could be just the right place to go for a day or night of fun, doing laps on the runs. For a true expert, there are no really challenging runs or long cruisers. For those interested in park, they have some small and medium features. For someone starting out in the park, they have a good beginner features which were not crowded when we went. On certain days, they even have a free park lesson.

 

The snow conditions are typical Minakami, with packed powder and while the region does not boast of blower pow, they have some decent dumps now and then. The grooming is good, and there is also some snowmaking capability. For a resort so close to Tokyo, they have great conditions.

 

The resort is open from late December through the end of March.

 

There are onsen nearby and most offer a discount when showing your Norn lift ticket, see the Japanese website for details

 

Gaijin Friendly?

 

At lunch, since it was so crowded, we shared a table at the Troll cafeteria restaurant. A friendly couple started a conversation in English with us, and asked us where we were from...of course I replied Tokyo! They were "locals" and living only 30 minutes away. Norn is one of their favorite resorts in the Minakami area, and they visit about 5 times per season. That day, we did not see any other foreigners there.

 

The signs were in English but the trails were not marked very well, even for only 5 trails, you would think that they would all be clearly marked with the name of the run and the level. Instead, they had some signs up high that were above the trails, i.e. not visible when looking down the slopes.

 

This year, there was an "International Day" complete with rice cake pounding and a taiko drum performance. Lift tickets were 1500 yen! Hopefully this will be a reocurring annual event.

[muikabochi 208]

Big review for a small place, nice!

Not been there yet.

[iiyamadude 6]

Thanks for that dyna (you should post it as an official review in that section too perhaps)

[SKI 15]

Good thing about that place is how incredibly easy it is to get to. 3 minutes from the Minakami IC.

[SKI 15]

Can just about see it on one of the photos in this thread

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/357741.html

[dyna8800 3]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Having some difficulty downloading photos from card reader, so need to find cable to attach camera directly to computer.

 

Good idea iiyamadude to put into the Reviews section as well.

 

Hopefully I can upload some photos next week or so!

[SnowJapan 178]

Sorry I missed this dyna - thank you for posting that!

When we send out the tickets, we ask that people consider posting a review/photos etc and appreciate it when you do.

[dyna8800 3]

At long last, here are a few photos...

 

 

View of Norn from the parking lot

 

 

View of Norn Ski Center from No. 3 Center Quad

 

 

Ski Course C

 

 

 

Ski Course E

[loaf of bread 0]

I wona ticket for there a few months ago and went in early March.

I enjoyed it. Only a small place but the snow was decent when we went and a few good courses. Company was good so that might have helped.

 

I really want to try a few other Gunma places out next year though for ease of access on the train this one is really good.

 

(I took a few photos but they were pretty much identical to the ones above!)

[thursday 1]

wow, slope C is a beginner's slope? Looks a bit steep for beginners. And narrow.

[dyna8800 3]

Yes, that is the top part where it is steeper, about 21 degrees.