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I've been invited by some friends to go to Zao onsen in March. I looked up the info on snowjapan and it seems to be a pretty decent mountain.

 

Any one out there can advise on how Zao compares to Hakuba or Yuzawa in March? Looks like a pretty big mountain, but hard to tell when looking at elevations, annual snowfall records and trail maps what the reality on the ground is.

 

So many mountains, so few weekends....

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When I went in March last year I'd say it was about the same as here. But last year was not a good year to compare to I suppose. Zao is higher up and more to the north than here so this year especially I would expect it to be better. That's what I think anyway. I'd like to have a trip up there March. Enjoy it!

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we have more snow than the alps this year. and i suspect we will have a longer season on resort. although it is a big mountain, it is not nearly as high as the kita alps and as such we don't have the big lines that hakuba can boost come spring. samurai and i are trying to scout out some possible descents but it is still in the works.

if pipe/park is what you like, i can confidently say you will be disappointed.

as a snow boarder i suspect zao would be a frustrating mountain. unless you know where to go and when, there is a lot of traversing/walking.

it is still a very aesthetically pleasing mountain/resort and the onsen is top notch, but i presume you are not japanese and as such i suspect are less likely to want to come up all this way for a bath and a good view. but if those sorts of things interest you, come on up.

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daver,

Even thought I like to jib, I'm an all mountain kinda guy (need to get some BC experience though)....I'm coming up with some J-Friends with varying abilities - so it will be all resort for this trip. If they all suck, I might just ditch them and head up top. If you and samurai are around - maybe we could hook up for a few runs or a few at the bar after?

 

muikabochi - thanks...yea last year was a bit freakish (in a good way). sounds like early march is a fairly safe bet.

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I just came back from a weekend at Zao and all i can say is- if you've got some skiers if your group, you'd better make good friends with them, because they will be pulling your ass through all the flat spots. And there are annoyingly many. Be ready for a lot of unstrapping and strapping back in. And you'd better have your spider walk down.

 

The park area is fairly decent but small with a couple boxes and rails scattered around and a table top and a kicker at the bottom. nothing too big.

 

Yes, the scenery is beautiful and the onsen is top knotch. But I think that will be the 1st and last time I will go to Zao.

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Yeah, sirjib, keep us posted on your arrival. If we get snow, it can be a decent place. The base has finally arrived making the trees about doable, but no snow recently. The big complaint is the layout, and the flats. Hopefully daver and I can help you avoid those. nonetheless, pray for snow...

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According to one of the guys I went up with, the reason why Zao's layout kinda sucks is because it used to be a bunch of ski-jos that got consolidated into one big one after the ski boom faded out. Can anyone confirm this?

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Zao is one of the famous "owned by lots of different companies" mountain. (Happo? Ishiuchi? the same?)

 

Thats a poor reason for them not to want to make the resort so much better by making a few changes though.

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don't forget to mention the ghost quad. yeah, a whole highspeed quad's towers securely mounted, going to zero terrain and boasting zero days of active duty. There isn't even a cable strung up. It's hideous what you will find in the layout there. Once again, give me the power to remount 90 percent of the lift towers, and you'll have about 2-3 highspeeds and around 9 doubles waiting to be given new terrain.

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Looks like we are getting a large group - we are up to about 10 people now. Does anyone know if there are full houses that we can rent in Zao area? I noticed that on the accomodation page of Snow Japan there are only 2 places - mainly pensions. Thanks!

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with the insane abundance of unbooked hotels in zao village, I'm sure there is something. A house however, doesn't ring a bell.

 

Maybe contacting zao directly would yield some results. Honestly, the place is like a modern ghost town when you see all the hotels with their drapes drawn. Kind of like 'The Shining' awaiting a redux. It honestly creeps me out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was at Zao in mid January. I was disappointed with the amount of snow up there, somehow I imagined it to be a place that would have tons of the stuff but we had a good time up there. Layout is not perfect as people note but we found a few areas that we stuck to for a while and moved on.

 

It was totally uncrowded though and we did noticed lots of empty places as well. It seems strange to want to see more people, but thats how we felt.

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