Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 170
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Lucky I run all your posts straight through an enigma machine!

Ditch the chicks and get off the bus at Rusutsu and meet them in Hirafu that night. Repeat Saturday. :)

Yeah I reckon Friday could be pretty unpleasant with the wind, and associated lift closures and queues. Should improve from Saturday.   I might be hitting Teine on Monday, if you're going to be back

I'm hitting up the mid-week turns on the 6th-7th. We are thinking about a day trip somewhere not so far from here on Sunday but nothing decided yet. I pretty much always avoid long weekends though because I can't stand the crowds. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't get the same random days off that I do...

Link to post
Share on other sites

I would actually like to avoid this one too but as I sat out last weekend I'm getting kind of worried about how many weekends we have left. March and especially April for me are pretty busy with the pen business.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Im off somewhere. No idea where yet. Itll involve trains though and no accommodation. Saturday is going to SUCK ASS if youre using public trasport, but sunday will be fine. Very few day trippers so no bother. Resorts are going to be mecha busy, tracked to hell and well annoying, but you know, it keeps them running and investing so have at it. Probably myoko/madara though with maybe a day squeezed in at nozawa. Cant decide if two days or just go for the full three this weekend. :) We shall see. Saturday looks decent for some snow from the friday. Probably tracked to crap by the time anyone hits it though from out of town :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Havent been there for a while during a long weekend to be honest... but delving into memory here, the worst trains going to be the 8.12 for sure. But honestly, myoko doesnt get anywhere near the same levels of insanity. I think its because most of the people there drive or just DETEST the lack of cheap travel from the station. Whatever the reasons, the bus up to myoko is never that busy. Ive been there on hella weekends and its nothing like the nozawa train/buses. Really itll think out first at the high school and iizuna (mure if i remember), then a LOAD of the skiers will get off at kurohime. By the time you hit the bus, therell be you and about 30 other people (on two buses). Nae problem. I never made the earlier train, but its so obnoxiously early that i can only imagine its much easier.

 

Oh, and remember, the buses arent frequent, so unless youre paying for a taxi (and you dont want to do that for suginohara), youll have a bit of a wait for the next bus if you get that 7.46 train. Though, im sure itll be fine to be honest. The big one is the 8.12. No real wait for the bus up to any of the resorts.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks mate, hoping my hotel swings down to pick me up :)

 

Heres to hoping, but theyll be flat out obviously and it can be a bit of trek down to the station depending on where youre staying. Id ask them well in advance :)

 

Wish i could find the timetable for the buses, i know for a fact theres an earlier bus, and it might coincide with your train. But i could never catch it coming from Suzaka. Well, actually i could if i just lived the other side towards toyono rather than squeezed up at the very top towards the yamas. Would have saved me a fortune on trains into nagano, and more importantly a tonne of sleep.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just stealing this from ski.au forums :) Uploaded by drc13 who may or may not be here.

 

2hns5kz.jpg

 

This, he described was the lifts at suginohara in the January bank holiday. First thing, yeah, i can relate, Ive seen that a few times before. but what drives me nuts is that theyve forced everyone into this by shutting that lift over at the base of mitahara. So you get two choices really. Skip the bottom half of mitahara and just lap the two lifts there, or come all the way to the bottom (expect an unclip), then a slow as hell pair, then a wee clip in and ride about two hundred meters into the queues for the gondola. God i hate that.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmmm seeing as I'll be in Nagano on the Friday night maybe I should have a day trip from there before heading to Myoko late that afternoon. If so where??? Togari might be the perfect cruisey 1st day?? Other suggestions? Could this be the start of 11 resorts in 11 days ala Ippy style.

Link to post
Share on other sites

At the moment it's looking like Kamui Links on Saturday, Asahidake on Sunday and then heading back down to Teine on Monday. This may change depending on weather/hangovers!

I think I might be up that way around that time mate. Would be good to hook up for a few turns

Link to post
Share on other sites

hmmm, lets see. Im actually contemplating where to go to avoid the saturday shit storm. I think ill skip myoko in truth and head to Tangram and just lap the border between madarao/tangram like i said i would. The bus to madarao might be a pain though. Probably going to be INSANE on saturday.

 

Togari is busy. Dont let this fact slip you by. Its just its predominantly beginners and low intermediates. The only way youll avoid queues is by exploiting the single person lift lines which they thankfully have. :) Only really once got caught in a "queue" and only really about 2 minutes long. Lifts are nice and quick.

 

Nozawa gets super busy, but honestly, the gondola queues disappear quickly. Lap the nagasaka gondola and youre fine. You can also snake it once you reach the top of the stairs thanks to the 1 person line. If conditions are shitty on the resort though it gets rough especially on the top lift for yamabiko. Smart money plays in the middle line. Not many people lap the mizunashi line. If you do come down all the way through Ushikubi (pray for snow otherwise its bumpy and cut to crap), then head to NAGASAKA, dont take the easier Higake line. The gondal back up from higaka has a much nastier queue to it since its teh main line for 2/3rds of the mountain. Only really the skyline and the late starters or the people amazingly coming out of karasawa/nagasaka get the MUCH BIGGER and MUCH FASTER gondola up the mountain at Nagasaka.

 

Myoko Suginohara... hmmm... cant really judge it to be honest. It seems like the area has really started to gain a bit of traction the last two seasons. By the sounds of it, this season during the aussie hols, has been a good one for them. Cant really make a claim, but last time i came to suginohara in 2011 i was STUNNED by the gondola queues. Not the first hour or so, thats always expected, but that they were pretty much throughout the day. The season i was there queues on weekends cleared up after about 10.30ish and then you could just lap away. Not no more.

 

Akakan: Queues move quickly. Last time i was there was late Feb last year. Queues were low. Could pretty much do instant top to bottom runs. I anticipate the closure of one of the main middle lifts will scupper this and compel more people coming all the way back down.

 

Ikenotaira: If the area is seeing more business i honestly shudder to think what that bottom lift is like. The queues for it was BANANAS in 2009 first thing in the morning. Obviously you stay the hell away from it after that, but a few bottlenecks even before it was as busy as it all suddenly seems to be probably indicates this place could lead to a bit of a rough day.

 

Akakura onsen: you couldnt PAY ME to ride that place again. Im not kidding. Im not wasting a days riding in that hole ever again.

 

Ryuoo. Ropeway is your friend here. Keeps the plebs lapping the normal lifts and only the dedicated sitting in a queue for 10 minutes waiting for the damn thing to show up. Every run though is worth the time. I reckon this could be a good option for a couple of days. You might have a chance of ski in-ski out deal if you head to the tourist office when you arrive.

 

Shiga Kogen: Lap the yakebi gondolas. No idea what its like on a weekend. Think i rode it on weekdays 2 years ago. But even then it seemed like so long as you avoided the central area, you could pretty much run at your own pace regardless of how busy it was. One caveat. Its got the only park i saw in the area, so probably gets murdered by rats in the weekend.

 

Hakuba Goryu: yeah, i wouldnt, but again, gondola reaches some nasty terrain which might put beginners off. I wouldnt go near that toomi quad though. :)

Hakuba happo1: no idea i assume it wont be pretty, but they probably shift people up the mountain quick. maybe. One of the locals might chip in on that.

 

Tangram: Probably alright. Its really a beginners and family area in truth which may put off the hardcore. No real access to the very top without accessing the slightly daunting and out of the way top lift, and not many of the tangram crowd will do it, (whilst not many of the madarao crowd will pay an extra 500 yen or so to ride a single lift when they can lap the tea tray or play on the quad)... jesus, avoid the tea tray. Just forget it. Though that being said, maybe thatll terrify the crowds away.

 

The cunning money then is the dual pass, and lapping the resort boundary area i think and exploiting the top tangram lift and the middle lift that joins it from madarao depending on what side you decide to come down from teh top. This also lets you hit up some fun and semi empty lines at the very top of tangram which youll have little competition for (it was COMPLETELY empty when i was there). The madarao kids will be busy fighting over the bowl and trees by the tea tray, and the super quad i think (based entirely on ONE SUNDAY i should add, BM knows it better). If theyre up for it they might traverse all the way to the tangram side to hit up powder wave 2, but again, it was nowhere near as busy as the tea tray/crystal course area.

 

All pure conjecture. :) If i have people in tow, im off to one of the myokos. If not, ill probably be tangram/madarao (order deliberately reversed).

Link to post
Share on other sites

At the moment it's looking like Kamui Links on Saturday, Asahidake on Sunday and then heading back down to Teine on Monday. This may change depending on weather/hangovers!

I think I might be up that way around that time mate. Would be good to hook up for a few turns

Me too... a few turns would be cool.

Link to post
Share on other sites

hmmm, lets see. Im actually contemplating where to go to avoid the saturday shit storm. I think ill skip myoko in truth and head to Tangram and just lap the border between madarao/tangram like i said i would. The bus to madarao might be a pain though. Probably going to be INSANE on saturday.

 

Togari is busy. Dont let this fact slip you by. Its just its predominantly beginners and low intermediates. The only way youll avoid queues is by exploiting the single person lift lines which they thankfully have. :) Only really once got caught in a "queue" and only really about 2 minutes long. Lifts are nice and quick.

 

Nozawa gets super busy, but honestly, the gondola queues disappear quickly. Lap the nagasaka gondola and youre fine. You can also snake it once you reach the top of the stairs thanks to the 1 person line. If conditions are shitty on the resort though it gets rough especially on the top lift for yamabiko. Smart money plays in the middle line. Not many people lap the mizunashi line. If you do come down all the way through Ushikubi (pray for snow otherwise its bumpy and cut to crap), then head to NAGASAKA, dont take the easier Higake line. The gondal back up from higaka has a much nastier queue to it since its teh main line for 2/3rds of the mountain. Only really the skyline and the late starters or the people amazingly coming out of karasawa/nagasaka get the MUCH BIGGER and MUCH FASTER gondola up the mountain at Nagasaka.

 

Myoko Suginohara... hmmm... cant really judge it to be honest. It seems like the area has really started to gain a bit of traction the last two seasons. By the sounds of it, this season during the aussie hols, has been a good one for them. Cant really make a claim, but last time i came to suginohara in 2011 i was STUNNED by the gondola queues. Not the first hour or so, thats always expected, but that they were pretty much throughout the day. The season i was there queues on weekends cleared up after about 10.30ish and then you could just lap away. Not no more.

 

Akakan: Queues move quickly. Last time i was there was late Feb last year. Queues were low. Could pretty much do instant top to bottom runs. I anticipate the closure of one of the main middle lifts will scupper this and compel more people coming all the way back down.

 

Ikenotaira: If the area is seeing more business i honestly shudder to think what that bottom lift is like. The queues for it was BANANAS in 2009 first thing in the morning. Obviously you stay the hell away from it after that, but a few bottlenecks even before it was as busy as it all suddenly seems to be probably indicates this place could lead to a bit of a rough day.

 

Akakura onsen: you couldnt PAY ME to ride that place again. Im not kidding. Im not wasting a days riding in that hole ever again.

 

Ryuoo. Ropeway is your friend here. Keeps the plebs lapping the normal lifts and only the dedicated sitting in a queue for 10 minutes waiting for the damn thing to show up. Every run though is worth the time. I reckon this could be a good option for a couple of days. You might have a chance of ski in-ski out deal if you head to the tourist office when you arrive.

 

Shiga Kogen: Lap the yakebi gondolas. No idea what its like on a weekend. Think i rode it on weekdays 2 years ago. But even then it seemed like so long as you avoided the central area, you could pretty much run at your own pace regardless of how busy it was. One caveat. Its got the only park i saw in the area, so probably gets murdered by rats in the weekend.

 

Hakuba Goryu: yeah, i wouldnt, but again, gondola reaches some nasty terrain which might put beginners off. I wouldnt go near that toomi quad though. :)

Hakuba happo1: no idea i assume it wont be pretty, but they probably shift people up the mountain quick. maybe. One of the locals might chip in on that.

 

Tangram: Probably alright. Its really a beginners and family area in truth which may put off the hardcore. No real access to the very top without accessing the slightly daunting and out of the way top lift, and not many of the tangram crowd will do it, (whilst not many of the madarao crowd will pay an extra 500 yen or so to ride a single lift when they can lap the tea tray or play on the quad)... jesus, avoid the tea tray. Just forget it. Though that being said, maybe thatll terrify the crowds away.

 

The cunning money then is the dual pass, and lapping the resort boundary area i think and exploiting the top tangram lift and the middle lift that joins it from madarao depending on what side you decide to come down from teh top. This also lets you hit up some fun and semi empty lines at the very top of tangram which youll have little competition for (it was COMPLETELY empty when i was there). The madarao kids will be busy fighting over the bowl and trees by the tea tray, and the super quad i think (based entirely on ONE SUNDAY i should add, BM knows it better). If theyre up for it they might traverse all the way to the tangram side to hit up powder wave 2, but again, it was nowhere near as busy as the tea tray/crystal course area.

 

All pure conjecture. :) If i have people in tow, im off to one of the myokos. If not, ill probably be tangram/madarao (order deliberately reversed).

Lucky I run all your posts straight through an enigma machine!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...