Sky Valley/Hyperbowl Tohach

[onehunga 26]

Finding myself in Osaka during the recent dump of snow I decided to take advantage and get a days skiing in. The snow came Wednesday night, some was still floating around in Osaka on Thursday, but I was busy on Thursday so Friday was the day.

 

Rika and I set off early, initially the destination was Ojiro, we had been there at the beginning of Jan and enjoyed the small local feel to the place. I also mentioned in the review I did of Ojiro that it would be great after a dump of snow. However I was thinking of Sky Valley instead, it constantly has the most snow in Hyogo, so I asked Rika, the same place as last time, or a new place. New place was the answer so Sky Valley it was.

 

The drive was interesting, as we got closer to the resort, there was a lot of snow around, and for me a first. The first time to see water being sprayed on the road, not only from pipes at the side, but also from outlets in the middle of the road.

 

We got there a bit later than planned, traffic on a weekday morning is a bit slow and heavy, however we were on the bottom lift by 9:30. Sky Valley has a bottom base with a rental area, a shop and changing area downstairs and ticket office and cafe upstairs. The stairs run though the middle taking you out to the bottom lifts. There are two lifts, although only one was going today. If the ticket numbers are ordered correctly I was the 92nd adult and Rika was the fist child of the day. There weren't many people there, although I did see two bus's arriving and dropping off a few people. I'm assuming day trippers from Osaka or Kobe.

 

 

The bottom lift takes you up to the main area, where you can take a lift to the left that takes you to the border of Sky Valley and Hyperbowl Tohach, and also to the start of the run down to the main base, or a lift to the right that takes you up the right hand side. From the top of both you can ski back towards the middle were there are two restaurants, only one was open today. In front of the open one (number 3) was a roped off area that is supposed to have a kids area. Nothing there today.

 

 

Looking down on restuartant 2 and 3

 

If you head off to the right from the top of the right lift you can ski down to one more lift that takes you up to the top of the mountain, from there you can head down three different ways, including over to Hyperbowl Tohach.

 

The snow was great today, large areas of untouched powder. While there were a lot of boarders around they all seemed to stick to the piste. The powder areas seemed to be ignored by most people there. Unfortunately I wasn't able to spend much time in the powder, following, or being followed by a six year old beginner skier round the mountain means sticking to the groomed areas. But there was still plenty of powder beside the tracks to play in.

 

 

Heading down from the top lift

 

After lunch we headed over to Hyperbowl Tohach, and if Sky Valley was quiet, Hyperbowl was almost deserted. I liked it better, the top of Hyperbowl was open and untouched, powder as far as you could see. Nice wide runs with plenty of places to play.

 

 

Heading up the lifts at Hyperbowl

 

We didn't stay long at Hyperbowl, Rika wanted to get back to Sky Valley and have another go on the boxes. She likes skiing on the boxes in the park, and Sky valley had two in a row, one wide one and one skinny one. We did a lot of lapping one of the lifts so she could have a go on the boxes.

 

We did have one moment during the day which almost ended in tears. After going down the run to the base, a steep, tight run that Rika speed down leaving me way behind, we got on the lift back up and Rika dropped one of her ski poles. To say she was unhappy would be a major understatement. However lady luck was on our side, and it dropped at the very last point that was reachable by walking up from the bottom. So after a run down to the bottom and a bit of a walk the pole was retrieved, and tears were averted.

 

 

The blue arrow heading down on the right hand side is the run down to the main base, not very wide and I suspect it might be a road

 

We left just on 4:30, just in time to get caught up in all the traffic as people headed home from work. All in all a good day. Counting the resorts as two, this makes three places I've been to in Hyogo, and I must say I'm impressed with all of them. Almost makes me want to live in Osaka so I can visit more often.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

Nice report. Looks snowier than I would have expected.

 

I can sympathize with being driven by the kid's preferences. But, it's also a nice thing to be able to do. Enjoy!

[muikabochi 208]

Thanks onehunga, very interesting.

 

[onehunga 26]

MO, Sky Valley currently has 185cm of snow. Which is 65cm more than Kusatsu where we are meant to be spending next week.

[pie-eater 207]

Cheers onehunga.

 

Does Kusatsu ever get truly dumped on? It always (well from what I remember which is probably limited) seems to kind of scrape by... (?)

[onehunga 26]

I think you are correct there Pie. I think Kusatsu does just scrape by, adding little bits at a time.

[fukdane 2]

Thanks for that onehunga, always good to hear about places you didn't know existed!

 

[snowdude 44]

Cheers for the report Onehunga, nice to see new places I know nothing about! Looks surprisingly snowy, but then the Japan seaside part of Hyogo can get quite a lot of snow!