oo 1 Posted November 25, 2002 Share Posted November 25, 2002 Happo and 47/Goryu linking up would be sweeeet Link to post Share on other sites
Oh-Hairy-One 0 Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 Might have missed this, but was that linking up 47 and Happo a serious plan or just a pipe dream so to speak? Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted December 2, 2002 Share Posted December 2, 2002 It one hell of a pipe dream but If we push for it could it happen??????????? Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted December 2, 2002 Share Posted December 2, 2002 Erm, no. Link to post Share on other sites
mort 0 Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Lets all make placards and do a demo! Do they have demos in Japan? Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted December 3, 2002 Author Share Posted December 3, 2002 What would it actually require in practice? A gondola running between 47 and Happo? (It looks like there may be high winds blowing down there...) A viaduct maybe? Or maybe if they just had the lifts going higher up the mountain, Happo and 47 would share a peak in the same way that 47 and Goryu do. I wish the resorts in Japan would go above the treelines in places. That would be cool. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted December 3, 2002 Share Posted December 3, 2002 Going right to the top would be a problem, winds and avalanches, I sugest 3 chairs. One from the end of the summer road. The second 2 heading up to the various ridges (benches) just below the main peaks. To do any of this I will admit that the patrol had better be good. I mean educated in control work. I still like to dream Link to post Share on other sites
zebedee 1 Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 Good dream for sure. The Dragondola from Naeba to Tashiro must have cost an absolute fortune. That goes over some pretty big valleys too by all accounts. Anyone ride it last season? Link to post Share on other sites
olivermauss 0 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 I'm coming into this a little late but I honestly dont think that most resports are into the customer satisfaction thing. There still pissed off that the golden days have ended and that they cant count on every schmoe from town to pick up a pair of skis and head to the mountains for days on end. Under those kind of sellers market conditions, no wonder what people actaully want is secondary. Case in point, have you guys ever been to naeba mid week? Its been snowing like a banshee for 3 days straight, you take a day off work to enjoy some primo pow get to resort only to find out that they decided that the top part of the mountain should be closed because of windy conditions. So then you have THOUSANDS of people lined up at the crappy lifts at the bottom(you know where you have about 10 lifts in a line all going to the same height on the first mountain), while if they had the whole mountain, you wouldnt have any lines. SO you call the management and innocently ask whether by now(after x number of years of operation) they hadnt figured out how to keep the lifts open in windy conditions. The least they could do is give you a reduced ticket, no the least they could is install a @#$%ing t bar. PLenty of agony but at least you get to the good stuff. What really bothers me is that most resorts in Japan are really proud of themselves for having these ssiter resort relations with European resorts and havent learned anything from these realtionships on resort of customer management. Niseko and some of the smaller resorts like Hachi are some of the few resorts that seem to be onthe right track... Thoughts? Link to post Share on other sites
olivermauss 0 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 I'm coming into this a little late but I honestly dont think that most resports are into the customer satisfaction thing. There still pissed off that the golden days have ended and that they cant count on every schmoe from town to pick up a pair of skis and head to the mountains for days on end. Under those kind of sellers market conditions, no wonder what people actaully want is secondary. Case in point, have you guys ever been to naeba mid week? Its been snowing like a banshee for 3 days straight, you take a day off work to enjoy some primo pow get to resort only to find out that they decided that the top part of the mountain should be closed because of windy conditions. So then you have THOUSANDS of people lined up at the crappy lifts at the bottom(you know where you have about 10 lifts in a line all going to the same height on the first mountain), while if they had the whole mountain, you wouldnt have any lines. SO you call the management and innocently ask whether by now(after x number of years of operation) they hadnt figured out how to keep the lifts open in windy conditions. The least they could do is give you a reduced ticket, no the least they could is install a @#$%ing t bar. PLenty of agony but at least you get to the good stuff. What really bothers me is that most resorts in Japan are really proud of themselves for having these ssiter resort relations with European resorts and havent learned anything from these realtionships on resort of customer management. Niseko and some of the smaller resorts like Hachi are some of the few resorts that seem to be onthe right track... Thoughts? Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 NHK Nagano had a special on Shiga Kogen at around 6:30pm yesterday. They said the ski school instructors were being taught to act as tourist guides, so that they could all talk knowledgably about the Shiga Kogen area. Apparently the first lift there (and in Japan for that matter) was built as part of an RnR facility for the Occupation forces back in 1947. It said that the tourist people there were doing lots of surveys of visitors to the area and had sent their staff (some of whom looked under 40!) overseas to see how other countries do it. Whether anything will come of this is another matter, but they said they were open to new ideas. If you've got any, maybe now would be a good time to let the people up there know. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted December 5, 2002 Author Share Posted December 5, 2002 I think these resorts should at least have big signs up saying which parts are closed before you go buying your ticket, and should then offer discounts if they're not able to offer something else. Imagine paying to go to watch a film or a football match and getting in to find you're only getting three quarters. I wasn't happy to find that Happo wasn't fully open once I got up to the top, and when I tried to complain, management mysteriously couldn't be found onsite. I would have followed the instructions given me by the girl at the ticket counter when I was done riding, if I hadn't already had such a stiff neck from ducking ropes to access the rest of the hill. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Don't they have big signs up telling you if parts aren't open then? And you pay full price. Sounds like a Rip Off Britain tactic. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 I dont think Japanese resorts do a good job of customer satisfaction. That said if the winds are high the resort can do nothing about it except put the lift someplace shettlered. That often means not in the best spot. Second although I dont think most japanese resorts do any or very good avie control one of the first things you learn is that 2 to 3 etc days storms can be dangerous. Big snow high winds are some of the triggers of big avlanches in or out of bounds so sorry OBm you did not make a good point. The resort I feel should set the price on the day and then keep the customer informed at the start of the day through to the end of it. If you have ever skied out in Canada America or Europe you know that things can be closed for days before they are opened by patrol. Locals love it day riders hate it, but they dont discount the ticket, and you love it if you get those frist tracks. Link to post Share on other sites
ugachuga 0 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Set the price on the day? Whoa, I can imagine how that would go down with them... Link to post Share on other sites
olivermauss 0 Posted December 5, 2002 Share Posted December 5, 2002 Agreed, if it snowed lots and there is a danger because they havent been able to get the cats out to groom stuff fair enough, then open the lifts once everything is prepared and safe. As for closing stuff after big dumps in Europe and the Americas, can t speak for Canada but I can for Europe and the US and I dare say I cant remember many days when they shut places down and didnt open for the rest of the day due to consecutive days of snow. Im not talking about freak storm that dump meters upon meters of snow. Generally speaking in Europe at least they groom slopes from 5 pm onwards AND do it again in the morning if it snowed really heavily over night. This is even on top of the glacier resorts where it snows quite a bit. My point is that in other parts of the world, the resort is there to a. make money, b. keep people happy and skiing/boarding, and they do that by doing everything possible to open up the mountain. In my humble opinion, thats not the case in Japan, at least not at Naeba. Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted December 6, 2002 Share Posted December 6, 2002 Grooming has nothing to do with avlanches. For one reason or another I dont know of a resort that uses bombs to blast here. Without the bombs you cant open anything without putting your own staff at risk. Fernie Canada will keep things closed for days so will whistler whitewater, Kirkwood and about all of Tahoe. Worked at a resort here and when it dumps it sometimes took 5 to 10 people just to shovel the top lift out. I agree that more should be done for the customer but not at the expensive of safty. Big white took out their top T Bar 4 years ago in a controled Avlanche. Link to post Share on other sites
xxx 2 Posted December 16, 2002 Share Posted December 16, 2002 "Bombs"? You serious? Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted December 16, 2002 Share Posted December 16, 2002 Yep. Some resorts use artillery style weapons to shoot shells at suspect parts of the mountain in order to create a "controlled" avalance. As previsouly mentioned. Link to post Share on other sites
nagoid 4 Posted December 24, 2002 Share Posted December 24, 2002 Cooool, when do they do that? I suppose when they need to, but I'd love to see it. Link to post Share on other sites
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