Trip Advice: Best expert/off-piste/steep on Honshu?

[shasta 0]

Hi Guys,

 

A group of friends and I are finally making a return to Japan for a month-long trip this season, and I am looking for advice.

 

We are spending the first two weeks in Hokkaido (where we all did a couple of seasons), to ski at niseko, rusutsu, kiroro, teine, kokusai, kamui, asahidake, furano and tomamu in that order. I've been to all of them before, and cannot wait to return.

 

We'll have 10 days in Niigata/Nagano, and can't really make my mind up where to go. None of us have skied much on the main island , so we need some advice.

 

What are the most challenging resorts in the Niigata/Nagano area? We like steeps, trees and anything off-piste. Resorts with a relaxed out-of-bounds policy would be nice, but we are not adverse to ducking ropes if needed. We will have a car so access is no problem either.

 

We will not be skiing much groomers, and quality of facilities is not a priority.

 

I've had a pretty good look around, and from what I can see, the following resorts look good: Seki Onsen, Akakan, Mdarao, Nozawa, Naeba, Shiga Kogen, Happo-one... Obviously, the list could become endless.

 

So, which resorts will make us tingle as we are about to drop in?

 

Thanks

[SKI 15]

Seki gets mad snow.

 

Nozawa seem pretty relaxed.

 

Hakuba has tons of steeps to play in and is, of course, bottomless... even when there's no snow!

 

Check out Kagura too in Niigata if it's not out of your way - connected to Naeba you can ski the whole lot on one ticket.

[SKI 15]

Ryuoo Ski Park often has some fine snow as well as ungroomed runs too.

[Thundercat 60]

Seki... it's a really tiny place to board and is only good right after a big dump of snow. I'm also a little suspicious of their reporting. Akakan is good with a bunch of tree runs that are fun and if you are into hiking there is a pretty easy way up the mountain. If you stay in Akakan it's a short drive over to Seki if there is mad snow. Myoko Kogen has access to quite a few places... Akakura Onsen, Kanko (Akakan), Suginohara, Ikenotaira and Seki Onsen.

 

I went to Ryuoo last season and thought it was a really good place with one of the longest steep runs I've seen at any resort here. That particular run is so steep that snow has a had time sticking to it though so it can easily become a icy nightmare. You should definitely give that place a look at as it is so close to Nozawa.

 

If you are trying to narrow down that list of yours I would suggest dropping Seki and Madarao.

 

Basing yourselves out of an area or two will definitely maximize your snow time. I'd say staying 3-4 days in Myoko and a 4-5 days in Hakuba would allow you some time to check out some of the resorts there. I'm sure some people have the same opinion about the Shiga Kogen area but I haven't spent enough time there to know.

[best skier in hakuba 5]

Hope to check out Ryuoo this time round, liked your report last time BM.

 

BM has some good advice though, largely agree.

 

The biggest scale steeps are to be found around Hakuba.

[shasta 0]

Thanks for the advice - Ryuoo looks great. A nice little gem hopefully.

 

I should clarify - steeps are just one of our preferences. If a resort has challenging/interesting terrain, then we would definitely be interested. It seems that "steeps" per se are fairly limited. So on that note, how about ideas on resorts that, if not steep, instead have fun exciting features, eg: pillows, cliffs etc? Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated and I'll be sure to post a nice and detailed TR at the end.

 

Also, I've heard the Hakuba are generally pretty strict in terms of out of bounds policy. Is this true, and for which resorts?

 

Thanks again guys.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

dunno the official policy of each resort but there is a healthy community of gaij up there and they seem to spend most of their time in the BC so I'd guess that as long as you had a guide/knew what you were doing then it shouldn't be a problem