It has been a beautiful day in the region, and warm too. Tomorrow looks set to be more cloudy with a chance of light rain and/or snow. Hopefully at least upper areas will get the snow if anything is falling. It will be colder than today as well.
Anyway, I just wanted to post this great report that Tubby Beaver posted on our Forums. He was up at Kagura on Thursday and as you can tell, he had a pretty great time.... thanks for the stoke.
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"After the roller coaster ride that this country has been on for the last 2 weeks or so, there really hasn't been an appetite for snowboarding/skiing or having fun in general due to the terrible situation up North. There are a few threads on the Forums about the pros and cons of getting out there again, however after deciding to get out of my funk I went to Kagura yesterday.
I'm so happy I did. After the weather of the preceding couple of days, I was expecting to be riding on spring snow, getting a bit wetter and heavier and more cement-like as the day wore on. Last year about this time I went to Gunma and the snow was so sticky that i couldn't get enough speed to launch from the edge of the kicker!
Well how surprised I was! It had just started lightly snowing, more the odd flake blowing through as I strapped in. The snow underfoot was soft and squeaky...the type that makes good snowballs! I took a warm up run down Mitsumata to check out the sides of the runs, all of which were untouched....the snow was perfect! Soft, light and powdery. I headed down to the Gondola and there was no one around, as I'm getting on the snow really starts to come down and looking out the window it appears no one has been down the long gondola run yet, so that was my first port of call.....again, fantastic snow.
Usually I don't like the Gondola run so much because it is all chopped up and its mega busy but yesterday it was ace. The top lift was open and that was calling me.......the forestry course is fantastic and I hate that Kagura don't open it until March, but damn the conditions were excellent. I spent the rest of the morning lapping the top lift, in and out of the wooded areas, running high across the face and down towards the lift (actually the open face wasn't that good, some ice bombs lurking under the powder made it difficult and less enjoyable to ride) but the forest areas just kept giving face shots and boot to knee powder all day.
As the snow got heavier and the wind picked up visability on the lift became pretty bad - you couldn't see but you could hear the few other riders up there coming through the pow forest with their whoops of joy....fantastic!! Had lunch and then it was back up to the top but this time I was linking through to the bottom of the Quad, through the side forests that eventually lead back onto the main Kagura slope. I have never had back leg burn like I did yesterday, my leg was killing me and by 3pm the top lift closed and I had to catch the bus back to the station at 3.50pm, so last run it was. From the top of the Quad I ducked under the lift itself (no one had been through here all day!) and into the forest, negotiated down onto the cat track that meets the end of the run out from the Top lift, cut across the track and under the ropes again into the trees that will lead back to near the bottom of the Kagura main slope…. and it was powder slashes all the way.
This was meant to be my last day of the season and it served up my best day of the season.....who knows if it really will be my last day!
If anyone is able to get out but are swithering for whatever reason, my advice is do it.....it'll cheer you up no end Thanks Kagura, you served up the powder goods once again!"
