evergrn

Warning: snow geek post with lots of details that hold zero interest for general audience. I'm posting all this more as an advice to myself for future reference, but thought it might be helpful to others considering a trip to Tokyo with ski side trips in the Holiday season.

Did not get to ski on this trip, but that's okay as we'll be back next month for the real ski trip up in Hokkaido. In the meantime, I've followed the snow situation at Gala Yuzawa closely.

Gala opened on 25 Dec with 30cm accum and stayed open for 2 days but extremely limited operation (only 2 beginner courses in central area). 27th was the day we were supposed to go skiing, but we'd canceled our plans which was good considering that Gala closed themselves due to strong winds that day. On 27th, rain in the morning wiped out what little snow they had before the rain turned to snow in late afternoon and allowed Gala to reopen with 4 central & 2 north courses on 28th with 50cm accum. From 29 Dec through 3 Jan, there was light snow most days with accum steadily rising to 90cm by 3 Jan and the resort operating with 7-8 courses in central and north areas during this time. Today (5 Jan), they have opened up 10 courses in central and north areas, but the south area remains closed.

I would consider that the resort, at a minimum, needs to have minimum 50-60cm accum early-season in order to offer good skiing. As of today, the snow accumulation at Gala's base (ie, top gondola station) is up to 120cm. So Gala's doing well now, even if they're not fully open (south is still closed). But keep in mind that Gala has the highest altitude base out of all the resorts in Yuzawa area. NASPA has 75cm accum as of today, but only had ~30cm only a couple days ago.

This has been the worst start to ski season over the past 5 years. Assuming this is as bad as it'll ever get, the conclusion is that you can never count on being able to ski in the Yuzawa area during the Holiday season although Gala (with its higher altitude) should be fine (although possibly very crowded if it's the only one open and esp if weekend) by the very end of Dec.

5khours

Thanks for the update. Thinking about heading up there on Thursday. I'll report if I make it.

Chinatrvl

Hokkaido was horrific this year in December - worst in probably a decade. Furano half closed. However, in Rusutsu it started literally dumping snow on the 31st of December - and hasn't stopped since. Looks like a great January.

evergrn

That's great. Gala's saying on Twitter that the snow quality's currently excellent esp over in the North area. Sounds like a great week to go!

Yeah I've been checking in on Rusutsu, and it was pretty bad around Christmas although I did not know there's been a snow dump. That's great. Going to Rusutsu in late Feb. I hope it's not too late to enjoy some new fresh snow. Last year around that time, there was healthy accumulation but no new snow and it was pretty packed.

evergrn

Not a lot of snow, but many places are hanging in there staying open with 30cm accumulation.
This place is staying open with snowmaking and 2 runs where one of the runs has snow coverage of 10cm depth and 15m width.
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Rusutsu only has 100cm accum at this point, which is a bit of a shock.
On the other hand, Lotte Arai has almost 2metre accum currently. That is stunning, esp when you consider its very low altitude, complete lack of snow in Niigata this year, and the fact that nearby Myoko areas such as Akakura Kanko all have <1m snow.

I've been reading a bit about the business of Jpn's ski industry.
It's not good, and it might continue to get worse with climate warming.
Chao Ontake Ski Resort is out of business.
Ontake 2240 was let go by Macearth and seems to have been hovering on verge of bankruptcy.
Speaking of Mcearth (Jpn's largest ski resort management company), I saw a documentary a few years ago of them where it appeared they were defying odds and surprising people with their success. But it turns out they've either closed or terminated contracts with 10 ski areas within the last 3 years, bringing the number of their resorts down to 25 as of now.
Some other data:
-- Jpn's ski+snowboard population dwindled rapidly from its peak at the time of Nagano Olympics to 1/3 of what it previously was. That trend will not reverse when you consider Jpn's declining population.
-- In spite of Jpn's rising cachet as a skiing destination amongst foreign countries, Jpn's ski industry revenue as a whole is reportedly in a progressive decline.
-- There are 500+ ski areas in Jpn but, to my knowledge, there was only 1 lift addition in the entire country for the 2019-20 season (new gondola at Kiroro, which is actually a link between condo and slopes and not really a ski slope lift per se).

Jpn's ski industry is now completely dependent on foreign visitors and foreign investment.
But foreigners are only going to be attracted to places that are either large or convenient or have big-time powder. They will never be drawn to places like Hachikita Kogen, Echo Valley and Ontake 2240. Unfortunately majority of Jpn ski areas belong to that category.

I think 20yrs from now Jpn will have ~20 destination resorts, ~half foreign-owned.
As it already stands now, Hokkaido resorts are already benefiting from foreign investment/money.
Compared to Honshu, Hokkaido mountains are bigger with better layout, see more and better snow, and are mostly within 2hrs of CTS. So more palatable and straightforward for foreign visitors and investors.
In Honshu, we've seen Lotte take over Arai Resort, but I think Honshu will not be as easy of a sell to foreign investors as Hokkaido.
I would say Appi, Shizukuishi and Takasu/Dynaland are good candidates to be taken over by foreign firm, hopefully leading to ski-in/out Western-brand hotel at the base.
Tokyu and Seibu/Prince (esp Tokyu) have collection of decent mountains, but neither company appears to have the money to run these mountains adequately or infuse enough capitals to turn most of their mountains into big-time resorts with world-class standards.

But I think that many of the small places off the beaten path that cater to locals will have a rough time trying to survive.

shuigao

Anecdotally from my ski'ing friends & acquaintances based here in SG/MY,
Not counting the casuals who just do a day trip to Gala Yuzawa, etc:
- 70-80% of them only go to Hokkaido and nowhere else
- The remainder are a little more adventurous, but even then only to the top few popular ones in Nagano / Niigata areas (Myoko, Nozawa Onsen, Hakuba, etc).

I guess there really is close to zero incentive to go elsewhere when you only ski 1-2 weeks a year

evergrn

There you go. I'd also stick to Hokkaido myself for now.
But in Honshu, there're probably at least a dozen mountains that have the potential to become legitimate destination resorts.
Asides from Niseko United, the biggest mountains are in Honshu.
But as it stands now, all those places lack Western-standard lift infrastructure (eg, high-speed quads), ski-in/out, Western brand hotels, integration between adjacent mountains (like at Niseko).
We've seen the positive impact from foreign investment at Kiroro and Hanazono.
If there're no Japanese who are capable of bringing up the standards of Honshu mountains, I hope we see more foreign companies come in and take over so they can develop first-rate resorts.
And then I think over time we will see a clear dichotomy of ski business in Jpn: old-school mountains with outdated facilities that can cater to locals with cheap tickets; resorts with modern standards and upscale lodging that cater mostly to foreigners with 6~7000yen lift tix.

Chinatrvl

Those "foreign masses" have driven us away from going skiing in the (Austrian) alps - I just live an hour drive away - to go to Hokkaido for skiing.
Over the last almost 10 years going to Rusutsu, the resort has become full of international travellers to an extent that this year during Christmas and Western New Year, I presumed they accounted for the majority of guests. We'll probably go there one last time in 2021 then head off to other destinations and flee from the masses again.
Hokkaido simply has outstanding snow, nowadays rare in the Alps, and lesser known and quieter resorts, Nayoro Piyashiri, Sahoro could be alternatives. That said, Priiskovy in Siberia looks nice, too.

evergrn

I didn't know that snow wasn't great on the Alps. I just assumed that the ultimate skiing is found in those monster resorts in the Alps. Are there regions within Europe that get more dry powders?

Rusutsu is indeed very international. When I went last Feb, it seemed to me that 1/2 the people in cafeteria were foreigners and Westin was 3/4 foreigners.
I don't mind a Japanese resort being filled with foreigners at all. You've still got great snow, great service, onsen and Japanese breakfast. For me, existence of foreigners does not detract from that. I like a resort with a Western brand hotel (where you can earn/redeem points) with Western standards of housekeeping, better lift infrastructure, ski-in/out setup. And if foreign money is what it takes to build that, then so be it. I can see where you're coming from, though. Everyone's looking for different things. The only thing that annoys me about foreigners at Rusutsu (this applies particularly to N.Americans) is that they're well-behaved at the hotel/restaurants but they get aggressive on the slopes and in lift lines.

I would've thought Sahoro would be full of foreigners.

evergrn

Chinatrvl
Since you were just there, let me ask this.
I see that West Gondola has been closed all throughout this season. But Giant is open. So what happens when you ski to the bottom of Giant? Giant takes you to the bottom of West Gondola and the West-East connector gondola. But if you want to stay on the West and the West Gondola is closed, you are pretty far away from the nearest West chairlift.

Chinatrvl

Getting over to the chair lift in the middle shouldn't be an issue, with a little bit more speed, you'll even make it to the one at the other far end. We enjoyed Giant, or the part that was open, a lot with very little other skiiers there.

evergrn

I seem to recall that whole area being completely flat. Giant takes you down through the amusement park and then you're right at the base of West Gondola from where I thought it was completely flat 100~150 meters away to the nearest chairlift. But I could very well be remembering things wrong. I hope you're right that it won't be an issue.

Do you know what's going on with the West Gondola? Wonder if it's closed the entire season. We'll be there next month. I think the biggest problem with West Gondola is that there's very little space at the top to get settled and put your skis on esp when it's crowded up there.

Btw I think Giant is my favorite run. I think it was you who told me about it.

evergrn

Kiroro and Rusutsu don't play J-pop music on the slopes. Bit of a bummer. Is that a Hokkaido thing? Wonder what the situation is at other resorts like Niseko and Sahoro.

In Honshu, I've only been to NASPA, Gala and Zao, and I believe every one of these places blast J-music through speakers on lift towers. Wish they'd do that up north also.

Cynicor

No, it’s a “westernised” resort thing. Small ones will like Sapporo Teine and the one near Asahikawa. Name escapes me right now

evergrn

I see. That's too bad, because I really enjoy that about Japaense skiing and I think most Westerner skiers would also (or perhaps not).
What about bigger Honshu places that cater to international crowds like Hakuba Happo-one and Nozawa Onsen?