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It was supposed to be clear and sunny yesterday at Grandeco, though as can be seen from the photos, it pretty much wasn't except at the very top of the mountain, later in the day. No matter, good skiing weather, cold enough but not too cold.

 

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They have added a third park area on the bottom leg of the Akadeko course, which is the long beginner course that winds its way down to the bottom from the top of the gondola. The main mogul course also empties out into this leg, after which that leg always felt like an overly long (kilometer or so?) run-out, so the park features are a nice addition to make that section more enjoyable. Good addition.

 

There are some PR articles posted in the main building, one of which quotes the manager of the resort as saying that skiing the trees off-piste is officially ok. Patrol will not only not stop people for going into the trees, but will actually give advice on where to go. Instructor guides can be hired as guides to areas outside resort bounds. This seems to be a change from several years ago, when reports indicate that they were pretty aggressive about trying to keep people out of the trees (though without much success, from what I have ever seen). Good to know that it is now officially ok.

 

Bad news: The Kashmir on-hill restaurant is closed this season, deleted from the list of restaurants. This means: no Deco Rangers! (I peeked into the other restaurants to see if they had relocated. Nope, no sign of them.) Looking for more information on the web, I found the following video from last spring, which purports to be the final Deco Ranger video. The horsing around they are doing with the plastic food samples seems to confirm that the decision had already been made to shut the place down:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reAk4L-NlN0

 

Saraba, Deco Rangers.

Thanks for the memories! :wave:

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Cheers, guys.

 

The snow was pretty good on piste, dry packed powder.

Lots of untracked knee-deep powder off to the sides, but just a bit too heavy to enjoy outside of the steepest sections.

On-piste was better.

 

Moguls on the main mogul course were at a good stage of development, not yet too high (i.e., I could actually handle them -- which is a pretty low standard, perhaps).

A bit of ice on the Center33 course.

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Follow-up. I wrote:

There are some PR articles posted in the main building, one of which quotes the manager of the resort as saying that skiing the trees off-piste is officially ok. Patrol will not only not stop people for going into the trees, but will actually give advice on where to go. Instructor guides can be hired as guides to areas outside resort bounds. This seems to be a change from several years ago, when reports indicate that they were pretty aggressive about trying to keep people out of the trees (though without much success, from what I have ever seen). Good to know that it is now officially ok.

 

This is apparently not correct. Details here: http://www.snowjapan...ushima-2014223/

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