tochigi Edelweiss: Last Man Standing

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

This is a follow-up to the quiz I posted in the "Where is this?" thread, with a bit of the history, at least as far as I have gathered so far. Photos and history lifted from various blogs.

 

Once upon a time, there was a small ski area in the mountains between Kinugawa Onsen and Shiobara Onsen, called Keichozan Ski Area (鶏頂山スキー場). Located at the base of Mt. Keichou, it was founded in 1961.

At its peak, it had two pair lifts, a single chair, and a rope tow. Basically 4 courses through the woods and a family course, max length 900 m, max steepness of 18 degrees. It was apparently a relatively quiet, local-style ski area, with an unfancy base area.

 

In 1969, a new, larger ski area was built to the north/left of it, called Keicho Kogen Miharashi Ski Area (鶏頂高原見晴):

In its early days, it was also apparently very basic, with a local-hill feel to it, but with longer runs.

 

In 1972, a new toll road connecting these two ski areas to Kinugawa Onsen and Shiobara Onsen was built, the Nichi-En Momiji Line.

 

25 years ago, during the bubble years, Hunter Mountain Shiobara was built to the north of these two ski areas (but not connected to them) on the Momiji Line. This was a modern-style resort, designed by the owners of Hunter Mountain resort in upstate New York in the US.

 

Following this, I guess the company that owned Keichozan ski area felt spurred to expand, and built a new ski are adjacent to the south, the Canadian-themed Maple Hill Ski Resort:

At that time, the three ski areas Keicho Kogen Miharashi, Keichozan and Maple hill were all linked:

(Note: North is to the left.)

 

That course map was placed at the top of the Maple Hill ski area, and apparently is still there.

 

However, despite all three ski areas being physically linked, only Keichozan and Maple Hill shared a common lift ticket, with Keicho Kogen Miharashi being separate. Skiers going from one side of the mountain to the other needed to buy single-ride tickets to get back.

 

Keichozan apparently retained an old-fashioned charm, with Maple Hill being the stylish foreign-themed resort.

 

At some point in the '90s (?), Keicho Kogen Miharashi did an image make-over, building a new Swiss-themed base station, and renaming themselves Edelweiss.

They also at some point upgraded some of their lifts from pair and single lifts to quads.

 

So now there were the American-themed Hunter Mountain, the Swiss-themed Edelweiss, the local-Japanese-style Keichozan, and Canadian-themed Maple Hill ski resort, all on the Momiji Line, which could apparently get pretty crowded at times.

 

Maple Hill seems to have been reasonably popular for a while:

But eventually it fell victim to the post-bubble malaise, and it went out of business at the end of the 2000 season, taking Keichozan down with it.

One can find reports here and there on the web of hikers going up through the remains of the Maple Hill and Keichozan ski areas to get to the peak of Mt. Keicho, where there is a shrine (sometimes skiing back down).

 

According to such reports, the lifts at Maple Hill and Keichozan ski areas have been completely removed, but the buildings, and nighter light towers at Maple Hill, remain.

 

Keichozan base as of 2010:

Maple Hill base as of 2010:

Edelweiss remains in business. They have put up fences on their southern edge so visitors cannot inadvertently slide into the defunct areas, from which there would be no easy way back. It is a bit smaller than Hunter, but features a dog run, a feature I heartily approve of (and have made use of), and free parking.

 

So RIP Keichozan and Maple Hill, and gambare Edelweiss!

 

Primary sources (credit where due) -- for more details and pictures, see the following:

(Note: permission obtained from SJ to post these links)

http://snow-reports....chigi.htm#maple

http://blogs.yahoo.c...97/1936828.html

http://old-skier.see.../157131752.html

[hellyer 216]

Fascinating. Good research Metabo

[muikabochi 208]

Very interesting MO.

[Saitaman 1]

Some of these places sure do have complicated histories don't they.

 

However, despite all three ski areas being physically linked, only Keichozan and Maple Hill shared a common lift ticket, with Keicho Kogen Miharashi being separate. Skiers going from one side of the mountain to the other needed to buy single-ride tickets to get back

 

[sanjo 2]

[pie-eater 207]

That was very interesting Mr Oyaji.

Thanks.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

 

I wish I could find more details on what things were like in the '60s and '70s, but one has to take what the net gives.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

So many areas and skijo hey.

Omoshiroi!

[634-maru 4]

Thanks Metabo.

Do you live not far from this area?

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

Musashi-maru,

 

I live in Ibaraki, sort of equidistant (or more precisely, equal-driving-time) from ski areas in Tochigi, Fukushima and northern Gunma.

 

As far as I can tell, Tochigi has had a particularly high failure rate for ski areas. 12-13 years ago they had 10 ski areas operating, now only 5. I think in general they don't get great snowfall in winter, and their ski industry only made sense for its accessibility to Tokyo (and to a lesser extent Chiba and Ibaraki), but with the passing of the latest ski boom (recalling that there has been more than one) hard reality has come home to roost.

 

I like to root for the underdog, so I hope that any losses that will be suffered have already been suffered. But, no guarantee of course.

[NoFakie 45]

Thanks for that. I guess if you add a lot of these types of places together, you get a history of the Japanese economy and Japanese demographics.

 

The two resorts that closed look well flat in those photos.

 

With cheap flights appearing in recent years, I think Tokyo people are more inclined to go to Hokkaido over Tohoku. That was even before the disaster.

[NoFakie 45]

On the subject of Ibaraki, I'll just add that I think Mito is the greenest city I've been to in Japan.

Its got huge parks right in the center of town. It must be great for folks who like to get outside and people raising kids.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

On the subject of Ibaraki, I'll just add that I think Mito is the greenest city I've been to in Japan.

Its got huge parks right in the center of town. It must be great for folks who like to get outside and people raising kids.

 

That's one thing we have a lot of in Ibaraki, green space.

(If not much else!)

 

But it is nice for raising kids, I'll agree.

But then, surely Nagano is too?

[NoFakie 45]

That's true, but the Hakuba valley is inaka.

While not Tokyo or Osaka, Mito is still a provincial capital. It means more economic activity and better jobs for the average person (I hope!).

[HeatherLocklearRocks 1]

That was interesting.

Must say I have never heard of Mito.

Oh so many places.

[merryJim 1]

Got to wonder what the thinking was behind some of these places.

Was it more "I want to make a skijo" flippant kind of decision (if such a think is possible) or was there really a demand for the huge numbers.

[NoFakie 45]

Got to wonder what the thinking was behind some of these places.

Was it more "I want to make a skijo" flippant kind of decision (if such a think is possible) or was there really a demand for the huge numbers.

 

Dunno. But there used to be twice as many young people in Japan that there are now. It's a weird thing to get your head round, but that's what the numbers say.

 

Another one was that only about one million Japanese went abroad in 1970. Until the mid-1960s people had to apply to the government for permission to change currency. Imagine how many hankos that must have taken!

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Got to wonder what the thinking was behind some of these places.

Was it more "I want to make a skijo" flippant kind of decision (if such a think is possible) or was there really a demand for the huge numbers.

 

Dunno. But there used to be twice as many young people in Japan that there are now. It's a weird thing to get your head round, but that's what the numbers say.

 

Another one was that only about one million Japanese went abroad in 1970. Until the mid-1960s people had to apply to the government for permission to change currency. Imagine how many hankos that must have taken!

 

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that a lot of ski areas were built by/in-cooperation-with the government.

 

Do a search on 国設スキー場, and you may be surprised how many ski areas were originally built by the government, particularly during the '60s and '70s. Kagura, for example, started out as 国設苗場山みつまた高原スキー場, eventually becoming privatized, I guess. Still working out the details

on what the story behind 国設スキー場 was, but it seems to have been a collaboration between the forestry agency (which controls the hillsides), the transportation agency (which regulates the lift system) and I guess local governments. Probably some mix of wanting to encourage the development of international-level winter sports, with some old-fashoned pork-barrel/stimulus/amakudari-busywork politics involved.

 

Then there was the Nikkei bubble and attendant ski boom in the late '80s/early '90s, during which building a ski area must have seemed like a license to print money.

[NoFakie 45]

Forestry land became worthless in the 50s (switch from wood/charcoal to oil heating) and 60s (switch to imported lumber).

 

One appeal of skijos and other manmade tourist attractions is that they can justify building roads at government expense.

 

A survey in the newspaper today said that average household income is now 5.3 million yen a year, 1.2 million yen down from 1994. Thats a big drop in itself, but it means a much bigger drop in the money left over after stuff like housing and utils and kids college. fwiw, if this average income is distributed like average salaries in Japan, at least 70% of households won't pull in that much.

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120706a4.html

[Hokkaidough 4]

What's the cost of living compare Tokyo vs inaka, I wonder.

 

5.3 million I imagine goes a whole lot further in inaka than in the middle of Tokyo.

[NoFakie 45]

5.3 million I imagine goes a whole lot further in inaka than in the middle of Tokyo.

 

You can be sure of that, though your chances of pulling that much in will be much lower.

 

I wonder what would happen if average household income fell by 15% in the UK or US.

I'd like to think there would be more talk about it in the media.

[fruity-sachi 1]

I think so.

 

Thanks for the post Metabo Oyaji, omoshiroi. I had not heard the places.

[Mick Rich 78]

Good work Metabo!!

[SKI 15]

Just noticed this one now.

Very interesting stuff there Metabo.

Must have been a fun and heady time back in the boom days when people were splashing the cash at things hey.