We thought that we were finished for the season before we found Marunuma. This resort has had some really excellent snow conditions over the past two weeks (considering it's the end of March). Last week there was some nice new powder (some of it covering patches of ice, but you can't be too choosy at this time of the year). The week before it was fairly firm all over the mountain.
Yes, it does start to get a bit sticky down at the gondola entrance in the early afternoon, but the whole mountain is still skiable.
There's a brand new restaurant halfway up the mountain (which has taken some of the pressure off the limited-space, "Central House"). The food is average ski-jo fare.
The slopes are excellent for intermediates and beginners, with a challenging mogul run on the upper part of the mountain.
The resort is West facing, which means the sun doesn't shine directly onto the slopes until quite late on in the day. It's also quite high (at 2000m). These are double bonus points for late season skiing.
