ausi ski bum 1 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I arrived at Shiga Kogen last year Jan 3 and it was pretty good, next year however (well later this year) I can only go from 23 December to 3 Jan and I wondered what Shige Kogen was like in general around those dates. I was looking at yokoteyama for the first four nights then moving to Shiga Prince East after that. Your thoughts Link to post Share on other sites
iiyamadude 6 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Well, less guaranteed of course. But you should have at least something open by then even if it isn't all the areas. Always a gamble. I presume you have read through these http://www.snowjapan.com/e/daily/shiga-kogen-now-archive.php?month=12&year=2010 http://www.snowjapan.com/e/daily/shiga-kogen-now-archive.php?month=12&year=2009 http://www.snowjapan.com/e/daily/shiga-kogen-now-archive.php?month=12&year=2008 http://www.snowjapan.com/e/daily/shiga-kogen-now-archive.php?month=12&year=2007 Link to post Share on other sites
SKI 15 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Can be brilliant, can be risky. We simply don't know! A better bet than places lower down though I would imagine. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I went to Shiga Kogen 2 New Years ago and it was great snow. A storm moved in the 1st night we got there and didn't stop for 4 days, some of the best pow I've been in. Dates were 29th Dec until the 2nd Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I went at Christmas a number of years back and it was just ok. The real snow followed just a few days before New Year. I remember Tubbys post a couple of years ago about it being mega at new year. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 that early in the season is always going to be risky as to whether you get awesomeness, ok, or crud. Usually New year/early Jan is when the snow trains start to park up in the Alps......of course we'd welcome an earlier visit!! Link to post Share on other sites
JellyBelly 1 Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Good thing is though not as busy so if you get lucky with the snow then it will rock. Don't think all the nightlife will be open though Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Nightlife in your room! Link to post Share on other sites
mina2 6 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Didn't things usually kick off mid-December rather than the more recent New Year. Perhaps rose-tinted glasses, but things do seem to generally be later than they used to be. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 On the contrary, I got the impression on from this forum that people expect that one can ski/board early in the season in Japan. Not true. It depends on the year and the place. Plenty of times there were not much snow before X´mas. I´m not going to rely too much on stats, and I do think people quote a lot of stats on snow - no probs with me about that sure, I can see general tendency (ie, snow is coming early in Europe but less snow overall, and last year France was good, this year Italy, all relative ... but I say it didn´t snow that much last season in Europe and the Base was thinner) Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Depended where you were mina. Think the places up north kicked off mid dec, while niigata and nagano not until late dec or jan. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Originally Posted By: mina2 Didn't things usually kick off mid-December rather than the more recent New Year. Perhaps rose-tinted glasses, but things do seem to generally be later than they used to be. I would agree with that. In these parts anyway. Link to post Share on other sites
ausi ski bum 1 Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 So what is the safest bet at Christmas in your view, I get the impression at that time of the year its much the same at all resorts Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 I don't know really. Check the daily reports for previous seasons, big red button top middle. Shiga Kogen is higher than where I am here, so I would guess more of a chance. Link to post Share on other sites
ausi ski bum 1 Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 Yeh been scanning the reports, very good source of data but as all skiers know, 50cm at one resort can be brilliant where as another you will need to ski on rock hoppers. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 So, what's your point? Link to post Share on other sites
ausi ski bum 1 Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 The point is peoples opinion of conditions sometimes give a more detailed picture than the statistics do. I have only seen Shiga later in the season and it looks to be super groomed and skiable on little snow however for all I know I could be completely wrong in assuming this. The resort where I own two properties, Falls Creek in Victoria Aust is a prime example of this, many of the runs can open with 30cm of snow however the Summit area and the Maze area really need 1 metre of snow to open. Link to post Share on other sites
mina2 6 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Whatever previous Christmases have been, it's basically a risk isn't it. Bordering start of the snow dumps. If you do go then... we always hope for Christmas dumps unfortunately doesn't always happen. Link to post Share on other sites
iiyamadude 6 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Are you going to go ahead with Christmas ausi? I think we are due an earlier start this time round. Anyway it's a better choice than lower places like Nozzle. Link to post Share on other sites
ausi ski bum 1 Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Still considering options, is there anywhere in Japan that really does Christmas special, it does not need to be the ski resorts, I can head up there a few days later if I have a good plan B. I am considerng grabbing a Rail Pass for a week then heading to the mountains for New Years. Link to post Share on other sites
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