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).