Marunuma Kogen In Late November?!?!?!

[u-tan 2]

Hello all snow Japaners, it is great to see the forums firing up again in anticipation of the coming season.

 

I have moved to Tokyo from Niigata (where I got into skiing) and I am looking to maintain the habit while living in Tokyo. At the first sign of cooler weather, I started clicking around the numerous sites offering bus/train package deals from Tokyo. I found one deal, 初すべり　11月限定日出発 (first ski, November departure) with tickets to Marunuma Kogen in Gunma, starting on November 22nd. What is the chance of the resort even being open at that time, even partially? Are they using artificial snow there?

 

This year they are claiming a pretty impressive park, I wonder how much of that terrain they will be able to build so early in the season. You can see the snow park layout on the pdf downloadable from their site.

 

I just had a click around Kagura and they are hoping to get the lifts moving on November 22nd with a full open　(Tashiro area) scheduleｄ for December 7th. I seem to recall them putting the same dates up last season but I believe that things didn't actually get going until about a week after that. I remember because it was my first slide last season.

 

Also, other than Marunuma and Kagura, does anyone else have any early season favourites in the Yuzawa/Minakami or even Nagano areas?

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Marunuma is always a thin ribbon of man made snow with huge queues to ride it at weekends

[snowdude 44]

If you can wait another couple of weeks or so you would have more chance of more being open but even then it will be patchy. Early season is always hit and miss.

[u-tan 2]

Tubby Beaverinho, is it really so bad? There were some slightly more positive reports in the review section.

[u-tan 2]

Thanks for the advice Snowdude. I checked the Minakami reports from last season and it seems early... till pretty much New Year... was very much a miss. Maybe that was when Tubby was there.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I've never been there in November....only ever watched from the webcams on here....and it's a ribbon of snow with large queues

[xxx 2]

It's really not worth it

[SKI 15]

Agreed.

Unless you are close, which most people aren't.

 

Crappy man-made strip.

[u-tan 2]

Thanks for the advice. I will hold up until there is some real snow.

[iiyamadude 6]

Probably a good idea.

 

Though I can sort see the appeal - a day out, nice drive, bit of sliding, eating and onsen. It's what you make it I suppose.

[Peetan 10]

I love marunuma to bits, but I definitely can't recommend its onsen. A tad skanky.

 

Even waiting a week or two more will improve the odds of a good outing, because it really is much more fun higher up.

[u-tan 2]

I just have to cool my boots. First slide of the season is always good but I am glad I waited for good conditions to make my first outing to Kagura last season.

 

After almost 7-8 months or so of waiting, another few weeks won't make much difference. I envisage lots of cam checking in the coming months.

[Metabo Oyaji 71]

I've been known to partake of early-season slopes, including late-Nov. Marunuma.

Never regretted it, just set expectations accordingly, and it can be fun.

There won't be any park set up that early, though, if that is important to you.