Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort

Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort – The History

Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort is the biggest single resort in Japan, situated on an inauspicious little hill called Kenashiyama or “hairless mountain”. It is also one of the first resorts in Japan, and in the coming 2011/12 season will celebrate it’s centennial. The village has produced several Olympic gold medallists, and the kids learn to ski from an early age. Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort is something of a mecca for Japanese, and in the glory days (late 80s, early 90s) it was common for people to queue well over an hour just to get on the gondola. Those with ways and means booked their accommodation a year in advance and chartered helicopters to bypass the crowds and get them to the top of the resort. The filthy masses begged lodge owners to let them sleep in the hallways and either endured the hours long wait in the gondola queue, or slung their skis over their shoulders and hiked up on foot to get a run down Nozawa’s lengendary slopes. It has been a long time since the bubble burst and skiing is no longer the glamour sport it once was. Whilst weekends still draw in crowds, on weekdays Nozawa Onsen is a powder junkies paradise, with no lift lines and run after run of faceshot joy.

Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort – The History

Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort is the biggest single resort in Japan, situated on an inauspicious little hill called Kenashiyama or “hairless mountain”. It is also one of the first resorts in Japan, and in the coming 2011/12 season will celebrate it’s centennial. The village has produced several Olympic gold medallists, and the kids learn to ski from an early age. Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort is something of a mecca for Japanese, and in the glory days (late 80s, early 90s) it was common for people to queue well over an hour just to get on the gondola. Those with ways and means booked their accommodation a year in advance and chartered helicopters to bypass the crowds and get them to the top of the resort. The filthy masses begged lodge owners to let them sleep in the hallways and either endured the hours long wait in the gondola queue, or slung their skis over their shoulders and hiked up on foot to get a run down Nozawa’s lengendary slopes. It has been a long time since the bubble burst and skiing is no longer the glamour sport it once was. Whilst weekends still draw in crowds, on weekdays Nozawa Onsen is a powder junkies paradise, with no lift lines and run after run of faceshot joy.

A snowy contender

Snow wise, Nozawa Onsen ranks right up there as a contender for top 5 snowy resorts in Japan. When a low rolls in and the wind swings NW, cold air picks up moisture from the Japan sea and then dumps it for top to bottom powder joy. It’s not uncommon for 50cm+ to fall overnight, and if the low stops in the right place it can seem to snow endlessly. The season generally winds into action in early December, January and February are the snowiest months, and cracker powder days in March with no-one on the mountain happen more often than you might expect. On a fine day in Nozawa Onsen a run down Paradise will give you a spectacular vista out over Togari Resort to the magnificent mountains of Myoko, and a trip to the top of Yamabiko will let you take in the huge rounded knob that is the back side of Naeba and expansive plains which stretch right out to the Japan sea.

Something for Everyone

Nozawa Onsen caters for every level of skier and boarder. Whatever you look for in a ski resort, whether you smash double blacks or have never seen snow in your life, you are likely to find it in Nozawa Onsen. Check out the tabs on this page for more information and then start planning your attack on a ski resort that simply put, boarders on perfection.

Yamabiko

A good place to get your legs is Yamabiko. Yamabiko has a few runs which the groomers leave off their list, and trees which the ski patrol freely allow you to enter at your risk. A reasonable skier or boarder who has never experienced powder will have no problems working their way through the moderate/intermediate tree runs up on Yamabiko after a few inevitable face plants. Basically, once the brush has been fully covered with snow (which generally happens in early-mid January), you can go anywhere you like at your own risk, without being punished by the mostly friendly ski patrol crew. After a good dump, you generally have a morning to make a pig of yourself with easily poachable off piste pow. After a morning it will be starting to get quite tracked out, but with a bit of work it’s not too hard to find the occassional untracked stash.

The Hikage steeps

The Hikage side of the mountain is where the best steeps are, but due to the lower elevation it takes more of a dump to really be able to let loose. If there is a good fall of 20-30cm in the village when you wake up in the morning (which happens fairly regularly during peak season), you can expect a joyous morning around Hikage. The Hikage side is served fairly well by the Hikage Gondola, but there is a moderate run out to get back to the base. The Hikage side is served exceptionally well by the Challenge high speed chair, but unfortunately this runs all too infrequently, usually laying motionless during the week.

Off Skyline

Off Skyline there are some very steep runs, which will really test your adrenaline supplies. Take the Nagasaka Gondola and Skyline connect lift and Gran Prix is your first exit on the left, followed by Jumping Course. The downside of this route is that it’s a fairly long lap and sometimes the snow doesn’t settle all too well here, which means frequent closures due to large cracks. Take it easy and look before you leap!

Mid Station Nagasaka Gondola

If you get off at the mid station of the Nagasaka Gondola there are two steeps to check out. You will need to walk a little bit and follow the Mizunashi run down to fork in the road. Go left and you’ve got Ushikubi (the cows neck) a fairly moderate ridge which runs down under the Nagasaka Gondola. On the right is Kurokura, one of the steepest runs at Nozawa which feeds down a narrow spindle back to Hikage.

Kandahar

Slightly out of the way, you need to take the forest trail or Utopia and veer hard right to get to Kandahar. Kandahar is an FIS approved race slope, with a nice pitch and good length. It is groomed to within an inch of it’s life every morning, so to really enjoy it at it’s powdery best you will need to be lucky and have it dump for a few hours early in the morning. Kandahar is owned not by the resort, but by the Nozawa Onsen Ski Club, and as such is only open on selected weekdays, with only one side permitted to be skied by the general public in most cases. Contrary to popular belief, it is open for skiers and boarders, and being slightly of the beaten track can sometimes leave it desolately quiet.

First things first

Boarding or skiing – that is the question. It’s hard to say which is more fun, easier to learn or “better”, because they are both great pastimes. The general consensus is that the first day boarding is bound to be painful, but in the long run it’s not difficult to improve to a relatively capable lesson. It would be reasonable to expect that in a week of practice you could conquer the Yamabiko area and be lining up a run down Skyline. Whilst you are more likely to spend more your first day vertical if you choose to ski, there is a lot more technique involved and it will take a much higher level of mastery to be able to attempt difficult runs.

Getting kitted out

Start with the clothes. If you are going to be rolling around in the snow you want waterproof breathable pants and jacket, which will ideally have some form of inner webbing/snowskirt to keep the snow out, good gloves, and a helmet to keep your noggin safe. Goggles are vital for maximum enjoyment. If you are spending money on anything, it should probably be goggles (snug fitting, double lens) as poor vision can really ruin your day. Make sure that there is no gap or intruding material (such as a hat) between goggles and face. This is the main reason that goggles fog up, which will make your life a misery. Helmets aren’t mandatory, but they should be. Not only will they keep you safe, but they keep your head warmer much better than a woolen hat and also hold your goggles in place.

Rental Gear

It’s good to get a start on good equipment. Well fitting boots are a must. Ideally, you will find snug fitting boots which have enough room to wiggle your toes, but keep your heel clamped firmly to the bottom of the boot. Boots that fit this criteria will enable you to better transfer control from your body to your skis or board. Well maintained and waxed gear will make your learning experience much better.

Lessons

Lessons are available at the Nozawa Onsen Ski School, which is located on the Hikage slopes. For more information about Lessons follow the link above.

Where to Start

Nozawa Onsen Ski Resort has tonnes of places where you can start off somewhere nice and easy to find your feet. The best of all is probably Uenotaira, which is 2km long, up high so the snow is good, and is serviced by a covered detachable quad (which will keep you out of the snow and wind and also slows down a lot at the top so you can get the hang of ungraceful dismounts). Once you feel comfortable there, try Paradise which is nice and wide but ever so slightly steeper, the forest trail – a narrow but gentle path which winds it’s way down to the bottom of the resort, and yunomine a very quiet run which starts off as a path down through the forest and then opens out and leads you back to the mid station of the Nagasaka Gondola. There are also three beginners runs at the bottom of the mountain, Hikage, Nagasaka and Karasawa. Karasawa is often overlooked, but being completely out of the way it is almost always deserted and a nice place to learn with a bit of space.