REPORT

Today I ran into a pair of snowboarders from Yamanashi Prefecture (pictured), whom I had run into at Nozawa Onsen recently as well. They told me, “Today we came to Madarao since there seemed to be a lot of fresh snow. We want to head to the ungroomed World Cup Course first thing, but it seems to be whiteout conditions, doesn’t it?” The Super Quad Lift started moving 15 minutes late, at 8:45 a.m., but was repeatedly forced to slow down or stop due to occasional strong gusts of wind.
[Giant]

Over at World Cup (pictured), the surface was a bit battered by the strong winds, but the roughly 20 cm of dry, new snow and the soft underlying base provided excellent fun and floatation. It was so good that you couldn’t help exclaim out loud how fantastic it felt. It was impressive to watch advanced skiers going down the steep, 35-degree steep slope and sending up large rooster tails of spray.
[World Cup]

But, it was cold. In order to try and get away from the strong, freezing cold winds and blowing snow, I took the No. 15 Lift (pictured) to Sky View, which is surrounded by trees. (*This lift will also take you to Tangram.) I enjoyed some leisurely runs on Sky View, where there was around 15 cm of fluffy new snow on top of the groomed powder base. I also went from Sky View to the SAWA1 tree area, and enjoyed playing off of the natural features of the terrain.
[No. 15 Lift]

Paradise (pictured) and the lower part of Giant had softly groomed powder snow surfaces. The freeride park, which was located at the bottom of Crystal until last season, is now located at the bottom of Giant. I met a group of four people from Kanagawa Prefecture, with one of them commenting, “It’s so cold, and I forgot my neck warmer! Do you know where I can pick one up?” In fact, you can find them for sale at Restaurant Heidi, the Madarao Kogen Hotel, and Shirakaba Rental.
[Paradise]

　
[Madarao Kogen Availability Information on 1/17 (Wed.)]
*Almost All Courses are OPEN (Except for Powderline, Powder Theatre, Riverline, Adventure Isle, NINJA.)
*Available Lifts … No.1 lift (8:30-), No.2 Quad, Super Quad, No.12 lift, No.15 lift
*Fees … Area 1 Day Ticket Adult JPY6,500, Over 55 y/o JPY6,000, 6-12 y/o JPY3,500, *Preschooler Free

*The ski area reports of Madarao Kogen will be uploaded once a week.
*Request for the original data of our photographs

reported by Snownavi