Madarao Kogen 17-18 Feb 2013

[Adam williams 1]

First of all thank you to snow Japan and Madarao kogen for these free lift tickets! Without them I would probably not of chosen this resort and I'm very happy I got the chance to ride this mountain and happy to have the chance to write this review.

 

So I chose a great couple of days to head off to Madarao.

Sunday 17th was an early start from Tokyo - Nagano on the Shinkansen out of Ueno station . A beautiful clear day arriving in Nagano, I headed out of the east exit to the bus stops just down the stairs. Bus stand number 3 is the one for Madarao well organized just grab a ticket off the agents walking around, a little on the pricey side at 1400円 but is quick and painless.

 

So the bus leaves at 9.20am sharp and took around an hour to head up to the bus stop in Madarao right outside the Madarao kogen hotel and so right in front of the entrance to the ski area.

 

Grabbed my lift tickets from the window using my coupons. Decided I would just stick with Madarao kogen for this trip and not get the extra Tangram side joint ticket, although is only a few hundred yen more and probably worth it just for some variation.

 

Decided I couldn't wait any longer to hit the slopes and so instead of looking for my hotel just grabbed a locker 400円 (no re open) and headed down to the lifts.

From where the hotel, equipment rental, lockers, lift ticket window etc is you board down to the base of the mountain, here you have access to the two quad lifts in the main area as well as the main restaurant "Heidi"

 

 

Heidi offers a huge amount of space to chill with the loads of chairs and tables as well as a large heater to dry off gloves, hats etc and a couple of couches to crash out on. Standard mountain food of curry, ramen, beer and snacks as well as chance to buy lift tickets If you got a little excited and just strapped in and missed the first window and bits and pieces in the small equipment shop. I noticed that a number of different vending machines were completely out of everything even at the start or the middle of the day but hey there are plenty of them so no big problem.

 

Now having spent a considerable amount of time reading Ippy's Madarao vs Tangram "clash of the Titans" blog (Great blog by the way helped out a lot)

 

I was a little skeptical on how much I was going to enjoy this mountain being only my 6-7 day riding, There for This report is a run down of the marked courses and not of the apparent great tree runs(im not there yet) Anyway so I jumped on the super quad up to the top surprised how many people wanted to put the hood down, it was a beautiful, calm day but a great feature that I would utilize the next day.

 

Getting off at the top took a right to the Giant course strapped in. The first top part was a little bumpy with a few hard icy areas but no big deal now after the first top part you can either stick left on the giant but be careful there was always a Score of people strapping in after coming off the number 2 quad for the bottom half of the Giant course or the free style course on the far left.

 

Or you can keep right and head down the carving course back to the quad lifts.

 

Next was the number 2 quad a little on the slow side but you can jump straight off this and onto the number 3 lift which take you up to the top of the ocean view course on your right or the top of the Giant course on your left and some great views out over the resort and the mountain range. Taking the ocean view course from this point is a bit crowded with people taking pictures, strapping in coming off the lift and people coming down from the peak on a thin track, so take care.

 

 

 

 

 

Ocean view was a nice run with brilliant views and spitting you out onto the Crystal run which is a very wide run thankfully, as there are many beginners sitting across most of it. I ended up doing a few laps of the number 12 lift before heading down to the bottom where you will find the Banff restaurant.

 

 

 

 

Banff again offers standard food and I imagine a meeting place for transferring between the Madarao and Tangram side of the mountain.

 

Finally a trip to the top is in order from the restaurant it's 3, again pretty slow lift rides up using number 12 and 13 and finally traversing to the single lift which I can imagine being a problem with a lot of people but I never waited for this lift on the number of times I used it.

 

 

Again great views at the top and turning left will take you to the Very top of the giant course and into the world cup mogul course and right, to the very top of the Crystal course. I wasn't game enough for that so took the previously mentioned track down to Ocean view and back to Banff, From which you can take the road down to a moving walkway and eventually back to the main area but has a lot of skating to get there and its painfully slow on the walkway and next time just headed back to the top and back down the other side, a longer route but much more interesting.

 

I spent the rest of the day just lapping the super quad until finally calling it a day an heading to look for my guest house.

 

 

I ended up staying at a place called Lodge Bergland. After trying to book Fujio pension which was full and the Madarao kogen hotel not taking single occupants (or being very expensive if they do)

I went with this recommendation as there is no single occupant surcharge. Very nice comfortable place a stones throw from the resort, with a friendly welcoming owner I couldn't of asked for a better host.

 

 

 

Next day the weather had turned and after breakfast headed out once again to the mountain. When I started out it was snowing lightly and headed down to the super quad like I said I would utilize the hood as the light snow turned to rain pretty quickly and was glad of yesterdays view blocking cover. I spent a while warming up (or waking up) on the lower runs which had a fresh layer from the night before but was turning pretty wet and slow after I while decided that it would be far better to head up higher (a little to late) and got back on the number 11 and 12 lift where there was snow and not rain falling.

 

Around lunch time grabbed some Katsu Kare from Banff and made one last 3 lift trip back to the top to come down what ended up being I guess the world cup mogul course on the far right instead of the plan to cut back onto the champion course at the top of the super quad. I spent the last part just lapping the super and the number 2 until heading back for a quick shower.

 

Returning to Tokyo the Nagaden bus leaves the same bus stop at 4.30pm allowing enough time to jump on the 18.08 Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

 

 

Overall I loved this trip this, Right from getting off the bus I felt that there were many parts to explore and was lucky that I never felt resticted on where I could ride because of the good conditions but can definitely agree with Ippy's blog that in worse conditions than I had this would be a lot more difficult to ride and would maybe limit the number of runs available to people.

One thing to mention the sign posts for the courses and restaurants are pretty informative although probably not well positioned. After coming off the lift there is usually a sign saying "don't stop here" which is fine but next to it is a pretty loaded sign and for the first time on the mountain takes some time to decide which way you want to go, hence there was a lot of map reading on the lift which is good to kill the time. By the end of the second day I was familier with where I was and where I needed to go and didn't feel i had missed out on anything and once again had a great time so I'm heading back early next week with a friend (the free tickets work!!!) looking to head across to Tangram as well and have another couple of great days out on this mountain.

 

 

Thanks for reading anyway

[surfarthur 22]

Nice review Andy

[panhead_pete 27]

Great TR Adam.Thanks for taking the time to pull it together.

[pie-eater 207]

Yeah thanks dude

 

[muikabochi 208]

 

Good to see people getting to Madarao.

Hopefully before the season is over.

[SnowJapan 178]

Many thanks for the really good report, Adam.

 

 

I have embedded the photos in there and taken out the small font thing that was going on, hope that is ok.

[Adam williams 1]

Only too happy to do my part with a review.

 

Thanks for your help David that's great!

 

Can't wait to get back on Monday!

[panhead_pete 27]

Im stunned those guys dont run bus each day from Myoko. Its a much better option by the looks of it than Seki Onsen.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Nice report Adam

[seemore 66]

Great report Adam

[Adam williams 1]

Cracking follow up today from last weeks trip! I love this place.

Great snow all day big drop yesterday again so perfect Monday.

 

Couple more days here this time before I'm back to Tokyo.

 

Should be a bluebird day tomorrow so will try for some more photos.

 

Great end to February!!!

[ippy 66]

Go check out Togari dude! its such a fun little place and UBER cheap. Plus you can get the bus there from Madarao. On a weekday you wont need a reservation, it wont be full. PS. Great report! its awesome to hear about things from other perspectives than mine. Glad you loved the place and had a ball. Still, hit up togari, youll wee yourself from pure joy

Also remember you can easy access nozawa as well (thouh lift pass is a bit more pricey - no gaijin discount). If you go to togari, dont forget your passport. It drops the lift ticket to 2500 yen.

[Gunma Boarder 14]

Madarao!!! great pics and review. I also recently went and also had a great time. Really nice place for all levels I think.

[Mick Rich 78]

Good review! I want to go!!

[Adam williams 1]

A selection of photos from the Return trip to Madarao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brit-gob 9]

Nice pics