REPORT

The seasonal contrast between the base area and the ski resorts is striking. Today, on the way from Nagano City to Shiga Kogen, I saw plum, apricot, and cherry blossoms, as well as daffodils in bloom—but up at the summit of Yakebitaiyama this morning, the trees were covered in frost (pictured). The clear blue skies just after the gondola started running at 8 a.m. were soon covered by clouds.
[Yakebitaiyama・Giant Slalom Course]

The Giant Slalom Course (pictured) and Olympic Course offered firm, groomed spring corn snow first thing this morning, which was perfect for picking up speed and carving smooth turns. With it being a weekday in April, the slopes were remarkably quiet, allowing me to draw clean lines across the beautifully maintained runs.
[Yakebitaiyama・Giant Slalom Course]

I ran into a father from Niigata Prefecture (pictured, left) who told me, “We’re here at Yakebitaiyama for the first time, taking advantage of my son’s (pictured, center) spring break. We have three generations of our family skiing together today. There’s no ski resort back home with slopes this wide and long, so we’re having a great time!” Around 9 a.m., the groomed granular snow on both the Panorama (pictured) and South courses had begun to soften slightly.
[Yakebitaiyama・Panorama Course]

The Yakebitaiyama No. 2 High-Speed Lift and the Okushiga No. 1 Pair Lift wrapped up their season yesterday, 4/6 (Sun.). At Yakebitaiyama, the Giant Slalom Course (2,230m, pictured), accessible via the No. 1 Gondola, and the Panorama to South Course route (2,430m, third photo), served by the No. 2 Gondola, both had plenty of snow. I enjoyed some long, scenic runs on the wide, white slopes.
[Yakebitaiyama・Giant Slalom Course]

　
*The base depth at the top of this report reflects the maximum depth across all of Shiga Kogen. Currently, the highest recorded depth of 200 cm is at Yakebitaiyama and Terakoya.
*The planned final day of operation for each lift can be found here.
　
[Shiga Kogen Details on 4/7 (Tue.)]
*Available Courses … (Okushiga) 1st, 2nd Expert, 3rd, 4th, 6th, Downhill, Kumaotoshi, Rinkan, Hillside, Detouring, (Yakebitaiyama) Giant Slalom, Gondola Contact, Gondola detou, Olympic, Super Giant, Panorama, Middle Contac, East, Middle, East connecting route, South connecting route, (Ichinose Family) Front, Teng, Panorama, Perfecter, (Kumanoyu) 1st A, 1st Mogul Bahn, 1st Shirakaba, 2nd A, 2nd Beginner, 3rd A,3rd rinkan, 3rd Beginner, 4th A, 4th Beginner, 4th Event, Umanose, (Yokoteyama) 1st, 2nd, Kaiwa, Jumbo, King, (Shibutoge) Gemut
*Available Lifts … (Okushiga) 2nd Rapid Pair, 3rd Rapid Pair, Gondola, (Yakebitaiyama) No.1 Gondola (8:00 -), No.2 Gondola, (Ichinose Family) Ichinose Quad, 2nd Pair B Line, (Kumanoyu) No.1 Pair, No.1 Pair B Line, (Yokoteyama) 1st Sky B Line, 2nd Sky, 3rd Sky, 4th Pair, (Shibutoge) 1st Romance
*Fees … 3/31- Spring Fee 1 Day Ticket Adult JPY6,500, Middle & High school students, over 60 y/o JPY5,900, Under 12 y/o JPY3,200

*Request for the original data of our photographs

reported by Snownavi