REPORT

Spring skiing at Nozawa kicks off on 4/1 (Mon.), with discounted one-day passes available, and 6 lifts serving 10 runs across the upper portion of the mountain. The Nagasaka Gondola will also begin operating 20 minutes earlier, at 8:10 a.m. To get back down to the base you can ski down the Rinkan Course to the area in front of the Hikage Slope and take the shuttle bus back to the Nagasaka Gondola base station after 4/3 (Wed.). (*Check the official website for information on 4/1 to 4/2.) This morning, blue sky (pictured) was visible until 8:30 a.m., but was slowly enveloped by rising fog.
[Kokenashi Slope]

The Uenotaira (pictured) and Paradise slopes were groomed with firm, granular snow surfaces that began to loosen up around the time the resort opened, becoming even easier to ski. Visibility, however, was poor, and I overheard the conversations of people talking about how they couldn’t see, how their sense of balance was being thrown off, how they thought they had seen a Kaonashi (Studio Ghibli) character, etc…
[Uenotaira Slope]

The SBM BANKED+ event was held on the Yamabiko B course in place of the SNOWBOARD MASTERS event which was cancelled due to snow conditions. A total of 183 skiers, consisting of 125 men and 58 women, entered the event. I spoke with one of the skiers who had just finished their first run in thick fog, who said, “I wasn’t able to make it to the practice session yesterday, so I had to jump straight into the competition today. I couldn’t see much at all because of the fog, so I had to search for the course while skiing.”
[Yamabiko Slope・B Course]

Wait, so there really was a Kaonashi (pictured) roaming the slopes. I tried to speak with him, but all I got was, “Ah…ah…ah….” I’m pretty sure he was trying to say that he was a fan of Snownavi, that he enjoyed all the fresh snow in Mach, and that he was looking forward to reading this report later. (The two other people in the photo with Kaonashi are from Toyama Prefecture, and excitedly ran towards him and joined him for the photo.)
[Uenotaira Slope]

　　
[Nozawa Onsen Availability Information on 3/30 (Sat.)]
*All courses are OPEN (Except for Hachiman, Kamoshika, Kandahar, Utopia B, Yunomine A)
*Available Lifts … Nagasaka Gondola (8:30 -), Hikage Gondola (8:30 -) and totally 14 lifts.
*Fees … Adult JPY6,800, Senior JPY5,400, Under 15 y/o JPY4,100 (3/1-3/31 Family 1 Day Ticket A JPY8,750, Family 1 Day Ticket B JPY12,000, 4/1- Spring Discount Adult JPY5,300, Under 15 y/o JPY3,200, Over 60 y/o JPY4,200)

*Request for the original data of our photographs

reported by Snownavi