REPORT

A patrol member I met first thing this morning mentioned, “We’ve had about 20 cm of fresh snow since yesterday. With snow this light even at the base, you can be sure conditions higher up (pictured) are even better. The tree area is highly recommended.” Caught off guard, I hurried back to my car, swapped out my board for a powder board, and headed straight for the upper slopes.
[Yahoo Course]

Skies were clear and the air was crisp due to overnight radiative cooling. As you’d expect, the groomed Yahoo Course (pictured) was in excellent condition, and for the first hour, even the lower slopes like the Alpenblick Slope and Kayaba Course had excellent, moderately firm groomed powder snow surfaces. Riders couldn’t help but shout things like “This feels amazing!” and “Awesome!” as they went.
[Yahoo Course]

Today is the day of the “SDS SNOW BANKED SLALOM in ALPENBLICK” event. I spoke with one of the roughly 70 participants, a snowboarder from Nagano’s Suwa City (pictured), who shared, “I always read your reports. The weather’s perfect, and the new snow is lighter than I expected—this is definitely ‘THE DAY!’ I’ll do my best in the banked slalom competition.”
[Banked Slalom Course]

In an exciting development, the ski resort has officially extended their season! The slopes and lifts will remain fully open through 3/30 (Sun.), while the Shirakaba Capsule Pair lift (pictured) will run for one additional week from 3/31 (Mon.) to 4/6 (Sun.). You might think, “Just one lift?” — but this lift stretches an impressive 1,750m and provides access to five different courses! Plus, lift ticket prices are a great deal: ¥2,800 for adults, ¥2,400 for seniors and junior high school students, and ¥1,700 for elementary school students.
[Shirakaba Capsule Pair]

　　
[Ikenotaira Onsen Details on 3/20 (Thu.)]
*All Courses are OPEN!
*Available Lifts … Shirakaba Capsule Pair (8:30～) and totally 4 lifts
*Fees … 1 Day Ticket Adult JPY5,600, Elementary School Students JPY3,400, Middle-School Student & Over 65 y/o JPY4,800, Free for preschool children

*Good Deal! Advance Lift Ticket (*Until 3/30)
Paper ticket → Adult 1 Day Ticket JPY5,600 → JPY5,000!
E-ticket → Adult 1 Day Ticket JPY5,600 → JPY5,000!

*Request for the original data of our photographs

reported by Snownavi