Jump to content

Mt Granview (Minamiuonuma, Niigata) - the resort that time forgot!


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 103
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Mid-morning here and the clouds had cleared and the sun came out. Time to go out for a few hours, we thought, and were debating whether to go to Maiko or Ishiuchi Maruyama. But we decided to have

I'm sure the owners are grateful for your help! Actually, come to think of it, you might now be their only form of marketing!!     Now there's an idea! Let's go before it closes forever!!!!!

:lol:

 

Having to wake up the ticket office lady from her sleep just cracked me up the most.

 

can you imagine the surprise oin her face after waking her up for an SJ gathering there and her being confronted by a number of Gaij!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Really found that to be interesting muikabochi.

There are I imagine still a fair few of places like this hanging on.

A sad sight really and I am sure there are interesting stories behind each and every one.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Could a tax writeoff or one of a variety of ways of getting local government .

 

How exactly does that work?

I can't understand how something like that can be justified.

 

Corporation tax is very high so companies don't have much incentive to produce profits. With public money, there's very little accountability and you vote for "yoroshiku onegai shimasu" or "yoroshiku onegai shimasu". Running up debt also seems to be a national policy.

 

It would be nice to think there is some rich old benefactor stumping up to keep this place running for old time's sake. I doubt there is such a happy story though, and even if there were, such money could be spent far more productively.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Found an interesting history of the area written by someone who runs/ran one of the lodges below the gelaende.

Seems like the ski area first went bankrupt in 1976, and has been struggling ever since.

(Hence no upgrades to equipment.)

I suppose even a little income is better than none, so they continue.

 

Also seem to be (or have been) some back country tours organized from there.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I suppose even a little income is better than none, so they continue.

 

If it were one old lady in a shop in a deserted shopping arcade, that would be understandable, but a ski resort with three lifts running and groomed runs is going to have high running costs. All that electricity, two staff a lift, snowclearing/grooming etc. Based on the photos, I won't assume much is spent on maintenance (!)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I suppose even a little income is better than none, so they continue.

 

If it were one old lady in a shop in a deserted shopping arcade, that would be understandable, but a ski resort with three lifts running and groomed runs is going to have high running costs. All that electricity, two staff a lift, snowclearing/grooming etc. Based on the photos, I won't assume much is spent on maintenance (!)

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the lodge owners were doing the labor themselves. Though that wouldn't cover electricity and fuel, of course.

 

Also found a trip report by someone who used to frequent the place regularly in the '80s, when it was relatively lively, and then visited again a few years ago. Said it was always considered a minor ski resort, but charming in its way with lodges dotted on and around the slope. Some of the lodges were accessed by chair lift in the winter. Apparently they had a ski school with some well-known teachers.

 

When he went back, he asked an elderly skier he met there why he came, and he said it was for the "slow life" feeling, old-fashioned and uncrowded.

I suppose they will have a few fans in that camp.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I knew someone who used to have one of the lodge place at the slope there.

They sold about 10 years ago when it was so quiet.

I went skiing there a few times but it is very small.

 

I like Maiko Kogen across the valley.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

×
×
  • Create New...