Nekoma Ski Area

What a day today! To start with, we got up at the crack of dawn and met up with three Bombardier cat drivers to crawl up the mountain to catch sunrise. On the way up the hill, I spoke to Dave, a New Zealander who drives one of the groomers for the mountain. He explained that Alts Ski Area is ideal for beginning and intermediate riders. With that said, he also said that those willing to push the boundaries can find untouched stashes of powder for days after a dump. He also emphasized that the terrain park at Alts was one of the best, if not the best, in Japan, probably Asia. The reason being, he explained, was a couple of local mountain samurais learned from senseis in the U.S. and brought the secret knowledge back with them. Dave himself prefers his kickers larger, but the quality he assured me was top-notch. I have to agree. Personally, I thought the biggest booter, which rises taller than I am when standing on the table, was plenty big.

Brendan and I took some photos, then took a freshly-made top to bottom groomer to start the day — the lifts still weren’t open yet, not until 9am.

At the resort center, we caught the intermountain bus that links Alts with its sister ski area: Nekoma. Lift tickets purchased at either resort count for both mountains.

Nekoma Ski Area is almost directly on the backside of Alts Ski Area. Both flank Mount Bandai. Alts faces south, Nekoma faces North. The corporate owners plan to connect the two areas via a ski path, but the plan has yet to be given the green light by the government. In the meantime, you can take the free bus (or if you know the route, apparently you can hike from one area to the other). It's worth the journey, and not just to reach Nekoma, though that’s plenty reason enough. But also the drive winds among forests, rivers and lakes, as well as passes snowy villages and farms. On the way, Brendan and I spotted a quail, as well as two snow monkeys wrestling like kids. Moreover, during the drive you almost make full loop around Mount Bandai and therefore see her from various vantage points.    

At Nekoma Ski Area, we joined up with Kei, the GM. He knows every square inch of the mountain and so gave us a full overview of its features. First of all, the ski area is about half the size of Alts Ski Area. It also has a bit less vertical. However, it also is higher than Alts, and since it faces northward, the ski area collects significantly more snow and remains about five degrees cooler on average. That makes the snow quality better, and the powder deeper. At Nekoma, the terrain park is much smaller—that is until spring, when a major park is built. Apparently, its nastiest feature consists of a 50-foot table. Nekoma runs longer than most ski areas in Japan, ending its season in the first or second week of May.

Kei is such a relaxed and pleasant person. His attitude shows in his riding. He’s having fun like a kid who knows he has the best toy in the world: a ski area. He took us down the groomers, through the trees, and into his self-designed playground, a series of spine jumps that allow beginners to experts enjoy the mountain on the same run. Brendan and I were beat by the end of the day and were happy to catch soft-seat shuttle back to Alts. We appreciated the beautiful scenery the second time just as much as the first. What beauty!

Alts hucking

Today was another spring-like day on Alts. Perfect. If you paid attention to our last post, you’ll know that Brendan took it easy today due to his too close encounter with a rail. He was gracious enough to put the camera on yours truly. We quickly sessioned the terrain park again, this time hitting the biggest tables. They were perfect. I’ll unabashedly paraphrase myself to re-explain what I like about them:

-The in-runs allow you to easily catch speed.

-The ramps are perfectly so you can get upward lift without needing a ton of extra speed to clear the knuckle

-The tables are shorter tables;

-The transitions are long and steep

I’ll go even more in-depth about the parks in another post because today, though we briefly revisited the park, we decided to play around with the natural terrain features of Alts Ski Area.

The fact of the matter is Alts is not an overly steep mountain. It’s mild and perfect for beginners and works like a charm for those who are advanced skiers but prefer to take it easy rather than risk cart-wheeling down a 50-degree slope. With that said, you can still find some terrain to play on if you are willing to hike or venture into the forested pockets between the established runs (should mention that the grooming here is impeccable). Brendan and I spotted a ridge-line below the gondola that no one had touched when it was powder, and still no one had touched with the spring-like corn of today.

So, without further ado, here is a cornice I floated off of, as well as a cornice-cliff I hucked off of: not exactly smooth on the last one, but the potential…Oh, and don't be disturbed by Brendan's opening bathtub scene at the Samurai Riders Hostel. It gives you a great peek at what must be one of the most satisfying bathrooms of any hostel on earth (and don't worry, Brendan doesn't turn the camera on himself...sorry ladies!)

Fun!

Tomorrow we are going to explore Nekoma Ski Area, the smaller, but steeper, area that shares services with Alts on the other side of Mount Bandai. Stay tuned!

First impressions of skiing Alts and Nekoma Ski Areas

Yeah! Today was our first day on the Alts Ski Area (we plan to meet his sexy sister, neighboring Nekoma Ski Area, another day). It’s late February, still winter by the calendar, but the conditions were already spring-like. Brendan and I didn’t get too much into the details of runs, we just skied as many lifts as possible to get our bearings. It’s a larger ski area than you think — various gullies separate different aspects of the mountain. There are some cat roads to connect a few of the lifts, but for the most part you have to catch a ride up to the top of one lift to reach the next gully (nifty for snowboarders who always have a lift close by and so never have to traverse much). It’s mid-week right now, so there are no lift lines. The lifties themselves are super-friendly, older than I expected, making them more professional than your typical fresh-out-of-high-school employee.

For the most part, Alts Ski Area faces south, so lots of sunshine. This made it especially spring-like today. A few other things we noticed:

1. Hardly anyone skis the trees. True there wasn’t any powder, but since the ski area is mostly south facing, the tree skiing in many sections was gentle, untouched, sun-soft corn snow. The fact that there wasn’t any tracks in the trees also implies that when the snow was fresh, no one was skiing it either. I should probably also mention we saw a beautiful, fat, large white bunny rabbit in the trees as well. That’s got to be lucky.

2. The jumps, though not insane in size, which probably is for the best, are perfectly built. They are the kind we like — in-runs that allow you to easily catch speed; perfectly built ramps where you can get lift without needing a ton of extra speed to clear the knuckle; shorter tables; and long, steep transitions. There are lots of features such as boxes and rails. In fact, Brendan got real personal with one rail. Check this out:

 

He is now on an Advil and Kirin Beer diet, on the rocks of course, which he applies to his busted shoulder. Lesson is: Rails are fun, but be careful!

3. The ski area doesn’t quite reach a mountaintop, though it gets close to reaching the spine of a ridge, granted it doesn’t quite reach that either. Regardless of the being below a summit, the view is incredible. Alts looks over Lake Inawashiro, the fourth largest lake in Japan, and runs along the southern base and west shoulder of 1,819 meter (5,968 feet) volcano Mount Bandai (seen below).

To Japan!

My colleague Brendan Madden and I have been invited to Alts and Nekoma Ski Areas in the Fukushima Prefecture to check out the potential here. Just the flight over makes you realize Japan is no small player when it comes to skiing. It is a rarity in the eastern hemisphere. We flew from China which has very little skiing, and what does exist disappoints due to the Middle Kingdom’s notoriously dry winter weather patterns. It’s cold enough, just no moisture. An hour into the flight I looked from the airplane window and saw the Korean Peninsula. The mountains there fare little better than China’s. There’s a classic article about skiing in Korea in Ski Magazine.

But then Japan. Boom. Snow. Completely white, snow-drifted peaks above the tree line, shimmering white forests below it. From the window of the airplane I counted no less than 15 ski areas between the Sea of Japan and Tokyo.

I’m writing from two perspectives these days. My life mostly revolves around China, but I’m American. America has skiing — particularly in the west, though I’ll give a shout out to the east coast too. Comparatively, China doesn’t. There’s some major peaks, the Himalayas and Tianshan Mountains come to mind. But there’s no infrastructure in these places, plus the looming risk that you will suffer AMS due to their altitude. Anyway, out in those mountains, you’re lucky to find roads. The rest of Asia offers little more, particularly when compared to the continent’s overall landmass. India has Gulmarg, which is sick, but hell to get to. Iran has a few resorts, but Americans are hardly allowed to get in. Turkey, but that’s almost Europe. There’s some slopes in Russia, I suppose. Is that Asia? There's Kyrgyzstan. Perhaps Afghanistan could have potential but…well, you know the problem there. Iraq anybody?

So that leaves the excellent option of Japan. We have skied here before, last time on Hokkaido, the smaller island to the north. This time around we’re in the heart of Honshu, the big island. And though we haven’t skied yet, so far it seems we are headed in the proper direction. We arrived at the Narita International Airport, threw our heaps of luggage onto carts, transferred by bus from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, and met our pre-arranged van at number the #2 bus stop (thank you Samurai Riders Hostel). Slick. Five hours of relaxing driving later, or about 3 heated mini-cans of coffee from the rest stop vending machines, here we are: Alts and Nekoma.