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Snow Dude's 2013-14 ski thread (Sun Meadows, Kiyosato, Yamanashi)


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I thought it would be nice to make a ski thread as I will be visiting my local resort a lot this year and document the weather/ snow conditions, etc each time I go as a reference for others and as a r

Day 7: Dec 27th 2013 : Woke up to a dusting of wet snow outside my house this morning and cloudy. When we got to Kiyosato there was about 15cm of fresh snow on the ground at village level. Got up to the resort and was greeted with around 20cm of fresh snow at the base and around 30cm up top with some nice knee deep spots as well. Basically a lot of fresh pow all over the place just waiting to be ripped up by us. And as we were there around when the lifts started and with sod all people there we had lots of pow to rip up.

The downer was the fog, we couldn't see sod all for the first couple of hours, then it started lifting and by about 11:30am it was mostly gone, leaving a cloudy day ahead.

In the afternoon we got some glimpses of the sun, but they were short lived before some snow showers started up again, before finally clearing as we were leaving around 4pm.

 

All in all a very good day had by us, with loads of fresh pow everywhere.

 

Here are some photos of today, not very good quality as it was very cloudy and a flat light!

 

On the way to Kiyosato

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At the resort

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Deep soft pow

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Forest course

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My stock easily falling through the snow. Here it was easily knee deep pow

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Snow walls starting to build quite nicely Over a metre high here, although not easy to see from this photo.

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We had thought to go today again but it is crazy strong winds and will be for the day and brass monkeys out there today so instead off to Tokyo for the day to buy me some new ski boots while my daughter goes to Kizania.

 

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DAY 8: 30th Dec 2013 Actually not a full day just went for a couple of hours this afternoon to try my new ski boots and helmet (review of those can be found in my other thread (helmet) later tonight.

Snow conditions were crap it was basically wind blown powder on frozen snow. -20+ the last three nights and low minus during the day havent helped.

Usually ok in the morning as the slopes are groomed so the snow gets softened up but ny afternoon is gets chopped up and refrezes if we get a few dry days.

They opened another course today with a slalom course and obsticle course which was great fun.

 

If we go tomorrow then I will be spending some time on that course for sure.

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Day 9: Jan 3rd 2014 Sunny start to the day with increasing clouds and almost no wind.

By 2pm when I decided to finish it was mostly cloudy.

Snow conditions were a mix of soft powder pockets and frozen patches so a new fall of snow is certainly required.

But it was fun especially on the slalom and obsticle course.

Crowds were large especially at the bottom and beginner course.

Lift lines were small for the advanced course and a few mins for the beginner course.

 

Glad I had my own gear and season pass otherwise I would have been there all day waiting as it was straight onto the lift for me.

 

By 2pm their too many people to have to dodge so I finished. It was a fun day especially until it got to o busy but then to be expected for new year.

 

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Day 10 Jan 4th 2014 : Variable weather today started off mostly cloudy then turned partly sunny and briefly warmed up to -1 around lunch time before quickly clouding over and temps dropped to -5 with a dense fog that hung around for about an hour and half before clearing for the rest of the day.

It kept mostly cloudy.

Snow conditions were chopped pow at the top with loads of bumps so made for a nice challenging ski down. Firm snow at the lower areas with icy patches.

The holiday crowds have certainly destroyed the snow on some of the lower areas and is in real need of new snow.

Plenty of cover at the top and middle elevations though.

More snow please snow gods.

 

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Day 11: Jan 5th 2014 :Sunny right from the start and very cold, got down to -17 last night and only warmed to -8 today even with it being sunny all day. But this had the advantage of keeping the snow in good condition as it was too dry to really freeze up so remained good all day.

Today only the top third of the advanced course was groomed, the rest was left ungroomed leaving the natural contours of the slope, so there were bumps, curves, dips all over the place and the snow was fairly soft, which made for an interesting day, as that is where I spent a lot of my time, that and on the F course which has a slalom, obstacle, tunnel, pipe, ramps etc to ski on, over, in and under. Also a lot less people today as most of the holiday skiiers headed home.

 

My daughter spent most of her time with her group again skiing, leaving me to do as I pleased once again.

 

Thought I would just add some pics of the mountains this time rather than focusing on the ski resort. Nothing exciting, but photos non the less.

You can see in the last pic how all the crowds that were there over the holiday have chopped and warn the snow down to the ground on the edge in one place at the bottom of the resort. We started off with a very good December with regular snow, but have been dry this last week, but looks like Wednesday we should be in for some new snow so that should take care of that problem.

 

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Mount Fuji through the clouds to the south

 

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A view from the top looking back at the mountains and the valley below

 

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Yatsugadake from the base of the Sun Meadows

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Well mostly wanted to aim it at readers of Snow Japan, as obviously people coming here have an interest in snow sports. I have been a member of here for years now and rather than try to make some naff blog that no one reads I thought it would be better to make my own page here and just update it each time I go so that both the regular and new members can read it.

Also hope that it will help influence others to do a similar thing so that we can all learn about new places in more detail.

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Might try that.. learn something new every day!

 

You should! I was loving your photos of Kamafuseyama, and wondering when you'd post a trip report. Now I see you have a blog. Post a thread here and I think you will get more eyes. (At least from us old farts who have not gotten the hang of the 21st century yet.)

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