Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 A very nice little place Adatara Kogen turned out to be. Compact, but with plenty of trails of different types packed into the space, so lots of variety. Highlights include the ungroomed upper Andromeda course, with knee-high powder "moguls" (for freshies, pay 1,000 yen for first tracks in the morning), the Cassiopeia course which consists of a switchback track with powdery steeps between the straightaways, a pole bahn, a mogul bahn (but too early in the season, apparently -- for now it is just powder moguls a la upper Andromeda course), and another ungroomed run off the top of the recently extended Gold Line chair. It was snowy, so no great panoramas, but hopefully it can be seen that there are some nice long, steep bits there. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The place looks very promising. Cool discovery Good pics btw I get the idea . Very tidy town without the excessive powerlines. Classy. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Thanks for sharing those Metabo. Another place I have never heard of, just looked on the map page where it is, looks fairly close to the Expressway. http://www.snowjapan.com/e/resorts/resort_map.php?resortNo=87 Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Thanks Metabo! How close would that be to somewhere like Alts / Inawashiro? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 about an hour and a half by car, according to google maps.....maybe more if the snow is bad Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Yeah I can see where it is didn't think it would take that long though. Never mind! Alts is one target for this season. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Alts is pretty good place......especially if you like park Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 Thanks all. Jynxx: The town is Dake Onsen, on the way to the ski area. Does look like it could be a nice place to stay if doing a week-ender. There is also a small hotel with onsen at the base of the ski area itself. big-will: It is very easy to get to. If you are driving in from the south, going through Koriyama junction, it would take about the same amount of time to get to as Inawashiro... muika and Tubby: ...but from Inawashiro, yeah, probably about an hour drive. The expressway part would only be about 30 minutes (according to driveplaza.com, which seems to assume one will drive just under 100 km/hr, so scale to your actual driving speed accordingly), but then add in 10+ minutes from Inawashiro or ALTS to the expressway, and then 20+ minutes from the expressway to Adatara, and it is at least an hour even with good roads. (You could also drive the back way around the mountain past Minowa and Yokomuki Onsen, but I haven't tried that and would guess it is likely to have a higher risk of delays.) ALTS is on my to-do list as well. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 There's just so many places isn't there, the mind boggles. Doesn't look crowded at all for a weekend. Domo, metaba-san. Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 BOC: yeah, that is the good, yet scary, thing about a lot of places isn't it, the lack of crowds. It is shocking sometimes how uncrowded places are, and how easy it can be to get hotel reservations even in peak season. Just gotta hope the good places can survive. On the other hand, it can be quite amusing on the expressway in the early morning, following the "northern migration," with every other car having a ski/board rack on it. So there are quite a few skiers and boarders still out there... Link to post Share on other sites
nippontiger 8 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Was at Urabandai Nekoma today - the other side of Alts. A lot of the time we had entire runs to ourselves - on a Sunday! This Adatara Kogen looks like a good place for us to check out too.... Link to post Share on other sites
fukdane 2 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Thanks Metabo, must get myself there. Link to post Share on other sites
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