Monkey Magic

Well spring has arrived, we had complete blue skies, no need for coats and plenty of sun screen being plastered on. The snow conditions are still pretty good even though it is so hot, we still managed to find some good off piste as well as some fast nice courses. Kagura are officially opening until the 25th of May this season so still another whopping 9 weeks left. (Tashiro area will close on the 6th of May). The big highlight was in the car park where a band of about 30 Monkeys decided to look for food, this involved a lot of new borns being dragged around the mountain by their parents.

Top Lift -Off

A nice 30cm of new snow on Monday night set Tuesday up to be another quality day on the hill. Kagura have now opened the top lift which takes you right up to the top ridge. You can tell why they do not open this during Jan/Feb as it gives instant access to more backcountry than they could patrol; didn't matter which way we chose we were hitting 3km powder runs all day. I have done backcountry all over Japan and yesterday just proved that it does not get better than Kagura. Week forecast looks like snow all day Thursday, cloudy Friday morning with more snow coming in later during the day. Saturday fine and Sunday sunny so get there early Saturday morning as there will be some fresh tracks to be had.

Bright and Sunny

Today was a bright and sunny day at Kandatsu where we're teaching the British School in Beijing, on-piste conditions where fantastic and even some powder pockets left from the weekend looked quite good until the sun hit them but through the trees should still be fantastic. Every time I go to Kandatsu I like it even more, it has a fantastic terrain park and one of the steepest runs in the area it is definitley one of my top 3 favourite resorts in the region this year, but with almost every resort in Yuzawa having more than 3m of snow its very hard to choose !

Sensational

Would be the word to describe kagura this afternoon, I ducked out of the office this afternoon because with the amount of snow falling around town Kagura had to skied. For those who know Kagura the No.4 Romance gives great access to some awesome powder, under the No.4 lift there was so much so that you could drag your stock along the snow just before the 4th pylon, it was great skiing under there as you could touch the ski lift while skiing - not often done. For those getting up there this weekend there will be awesome pockets of snow still lying around, best to get up there early.
Have a good weekend.

Another great weekend at Kagura

We keep having a joke amongst the kagura crew that every weekend "it just keeps getting better" No difference this weekend with a morning of fresh powder and an afternoon spent trying to make some videos of fun in the deep stuff. There is a really good atmosphere building in kagura with a lot of new like minded people becoming friends after tearing up the tracks in the same back country. The new rule for this year is anybody looking for some off piste action either meet in the car park at 8am or kagura gondola cafe at 12pm. Check out the you tube link for our first attempt at video hopefully we get better.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Picture this a whole week of fresh snow, just as the weekend approaches the winds increase and the key top lift stops working for most of the day. Just as everyone has had a good blast through the lower powder and is ready to head home, the resort open this top lift for the last 2 hours. 100cm of totally un touched powder on all the top courses, no groomers no tracks, no people just your own un tracked powder heaven. It just does not get any better than this. Then just as the heart returned to a normal pace, the clouds cleared for Saturday and the sun came out. More untracked powder off the pistes and a real buzz around the resort as season 2007/08 hits the real take off button.

Blue skies and powder snow in Tashiro

Today was the first time that we had the chance to try out a few runs in the Tashiro area of Kagura ski resort.

After quickly bombing around the resort just to make sure that all the runs were still there, we ended up taking one or two slight diversions, finding some great runs and fresh powder snow.

The weather was very changeable: periods of deep winter blizzards interspersed with bright blue skies. I took these photos while the sun was out (click photo for a larger version)...

Kagura ski resort

Slight diversion in Tashiro

Kagura opening day - amazing conditions out there!

Kagura's season started on Friday 23rd November, and with style: the conditions were fantastic.

Even the lowest slopes in the Mitsumata area had knee-deep powder runs. Friday was a cold day, though thankfully as the morning progressed the snow held up, allowing for better visibility.

Usually on the first day of the season, there isn't a great deal of snow around: this gives you a chance to get your legs ready for when the snow dumps arrive. There was no such luxury this time round: from the very start, the powder was up to knee deep. It was amazing to have such conditions at the end of November. My leg muscles were begging for mercy after an hour or two, but it was impossible to stop.

Saturday was more of a blue sky day. There was still plenty of powder snow to be found, as shown on the picture below (clicking on the image gives a larger version).

Blue sky & fresh powder snow in Kagura, Sat 24 November

Kagura main gelende, Sat 24 November

Outside Echigo Yuzawa Train station, Friday 23rd November

The ski season couldn't have started better. Looking forward to plenty more days like these...