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From: Centleisure Maiko Jan 27th 2012
03 February 2012
After some quiet contemplation, and seeing a few other SJ members starting a blog, I decided to take the plunge......... most will be about my various snow trips but some will be deep and philosophical about those really troubling issues that cloud a Beaver's life...........1st up Maiko......are you sitting comfortably, now we'll begin 
I was going to wait and hit up here next Wednesday for some uncrowded weekday action but I couldn't stand looking at all the snowfilled webcams for another weekend, so off I went. Its an early start for me, get the 5.04am train from Fujisawa station to Tokyo, jump on the 6.08am Shinkansen to Echigo Yuzawa and powder heaven. When we were spit out of the HUGE tunnel between Gunma and Niigata, we weren't disappointed to see that the Pow tap was left on and there was loads of snow around and the sky was full of it. Maiko puts on a free shuttle bus from Echigo Yuzawa station to the resort so thats great. They also time it to coincide with the Shink arrivals so there SHOULD be one waiting for you when you get off. When we got there, happily there were 2 buses.....1 a large coach that took all the bags in the hold and another more of a hotel like shuttle bus. We were greeted very happily by the driver with a cheery "Good-o Mo-ningu" which put an unexpected smile on our faces. Shuttle was busy, both buses were packed, with people sitting in those dodgy jump seats that all Japanese buses seem to have on them. There are a couple of stops at the resort itself......think the first one was called "Ski-jo Mae No Iriguchi", 2nd one was the "Hotel Stop" and lastly was the Gondola.........get off at the Gondola, the ski centre is there and you can change and rent gear if need be and also the Gondola accesses the better side of the mountain, the powder bowl area on the left of the Gerende map above.
I didn't take any photos, except for some dodgy stuff they passed off as soup (more of that later), as this place has been photographed on much nicer days by a slightly
better photographer than myself (Muika take a bow) and it was gray and puking snow all day so not much to see. We got off the Gondola and headed to the top lifts marked C and B on the map. Took B up and rode down the ungroomed area to the Gondola top again. The ungroomed area was pretty much tracked out in the centre but the sides were chock full of large banks of untouched DEEEEEEEEP powder. This resort isn't very high, just below the 1000 metre mark, so although the new snowfall was light, the powder underneath was a little heavy. This meant that there were a lot of people getting stuck and having to dig themselves out........we made 2 or 3 runs down this slope and there was 1 guy who was still digging himself out to the piste. After our first runs, we were kind of left feeling with a little "is this it" kind of feeling. Not that the snow wasn't good, just that the runs were a bit short. We then took the C lift up, there was so much snow that our boards were not that far away from the snow while riding the lift!! There were tons of the white stuff!! near to the top we spied 2 girls who ventured off the side with the intention to ride under the lift, come a cropper and start to make the long arduous task of digging themselves back to solid base-land........they took ages doing this! We decided to ride down to the bottom again to see what the rest of the runs were like. The Guigui course was fun, we cut through the bushes and trees for some short untouched powder runs and then followed the course back down to the Mountain Restaurant. We actually took an early lunch.....I plumped for my standard katsu curry and was surprised to be given a cup full of what looked liked dishwater, to be told it was the "Soup Set"........if Peppered water passes as soup, I think they should fire the chef!! 
Back to the runs, I enjoyed these cruisy meandering runs, nothing challenging, just great fun on the powdery slopes with some surf-style switchbacks on the berms at the side of the piste, dropping in and out of the untouched as I went. We headed across to the Maiko area after lunch to check it out. At first glance, this is family and beginner central. The lower runs are all very cruisy greens, not much of a gradient at all and it was here that I had to wade out of my first waist deep powder hole of the day. On the lift up I spied a powder pocket with not a track, decided that to ride it all the way through I should stay high and cut down at the last minute and at all costs avoid charging down into the hole in the middle.........got a little excited and forgot my previous plan and got stuck. That was a wade out so not too bad. We headed over to the strangely named "Dolphin Course", the track from the lift is above a semi open bowl that is left ungroomed and strangely has skull and cross bone signs saying that it is not Patrolled. Most people headed over to the open face to drop in, we hung back a little and dropped a little into the treed area (it hardly warrants the use of the word "trees") but still it was nice to get untouched snow, lapped this a few times and each time we were dropping in earlier into the bowl. Finally a place here that is steep enough to allow you to ride the deep all the way through. Its pretty short though which is a shame because its one of the few places where the gradient helps you through the deep snow. I also got stuck here, at the bottom of the run where many people had tracked, leaves kinda big holes that when you get spit out into can halt your progress and get you stuck.....another wade, this time mid-stomach and had to use my board as a raft.
Last run of the day, decided to take the Gondola back up and enjoy that Guigui run again............instead of using the track, I cut through the pockets between the trails (actually it may be the Ranran course at this point) riding the snow when disaster strikes and my progress is halted......AGAIN!! This time though, I'm stuck good!! I'm not far from piste which fills me with confidence....I can just wade over there again. Not this time!! This snow was uber deep and every movement I made meant i sank further down. I had buried my board, found it, tried to use it as a shovel....failed....sank further......tried to use it as a life raft and was reasonably successful but it mean that snow build up at the front was getting into my face.........man I was tired!! thankfully this guy was passing and asked if I needed help, which I gladly accepted and he pulled, I kicked until I was finally free! That stuff was like concrete around my feet, almost sucking my boots right off them!! I really felt that this year I would be able to start doing proper out of bounds stuff but this has brought it back to me that actually perhaps I can't.
Ok, so this has turned into an Ippy style edition and I'm droning on....so a re-cap.....Maiko, nice little place for a day trip. Families and beginners will enjoy the mellow Maiko slopes and a weekday trip with no crowds will mean a lot of untouched for the Powder Hounds. Not really that much challenging runs in terms of gradient....this is a pretty mellow place and those runs that do have a bit of steepness are actually really short and its over before it began. Obviously I got stuck a few times and it got me thinking.......last season at Kagura I was riding the pow and trees there no probs, so why was I having so much problems with the Maiko stuff?? I figure that the snow, while great, isn't as light due to the altitude and also the gradient doesn't help when there are crazy amounts of snow, keeping momentum can be a challenge.........though I am loathe to suggest it but can a place have too MUCH snow?? Anyway, I had a great time, I didn't get to see the nice views that are meant to be here, but it was very picturesque.....I also missed out on the beer towers but if they were filling them up with the 600 yen cans of 350ml Asahi then I'm glad I passed.....couldn't have afforded it!!
Peppery Water
Source: Centleisure Maiko Jan 27th 2012
I was going to wait and hit up here next Wednesday for some uncrowded weekday action but I couldn't stand looking at all the snowfilled webcams for another weekend, so off I went. Its an early start for me, get the 5.04am train from Fujisawa station to Tokyo, jump on the 6.08am Shinkansen to Echigo Yuzawa and powder heaven. When we were spit out of the HUGE tunnel between Gunma and Niigata, we weren't disappointed to see that the Pow tap was left on and there was loads of snow around and the sky was full of it. Maiko puts on a free shuttle bus from Echigo Yuzawa station to the resort so thats great. They also time it to coincide with the Shink arrivals so there SHOULD be one waiting for you when you get off. When we got there, happily there were 2 buses.....1 a large coach that took all the bags in the hold and another more of a hotel like shuttle bus. We were greeted very happily by the driver with a cheery "Good-o Mo-ningu" which put an unexpected smile on our faces. Shuttle was busy, both buses were packed, with people sitting in those dodgy jump seats that all Japanese buses seem to have on them. There are a couple of stops at the resort itself......think the first one was called "Ski-jo Mae No Iriguchi", 2nd one was the "Hotel Stop" and lastly was the Gondola.........get off at the Gondola, the ski centre is there and you can change and rent gear if need be and also the Gondola accesses the better side of the mountain, the powder bowl area on the left of the Gerende map above.
I didn't take any photos, except for some dodgy stuff they passed off as soup (more of that later), as this place has been photographed on much nicer days by a slightly
better photographer than myself (Muika take a bow) and it was gray and puking snow all day so not much to see. We got off the Gondola and headed to the top lifts marked C and B on the map. Took B up and rode down the ungroomed area to the Gondola top again. The ungroomed area was pretty much tracked out in the centre but the sides were chock full of large banks of untouched DEEEEEEEEP powder. This resort isn't very high, just below the 1000 metre mark, so although the new snowfall was light, the powder underneath was a little heavy. This meant that there were a lot of people getting stuck and having to dig themselves out........we made 2 or 3 runs down this slope and there was 1 guy who was still digging himself out to the piste. After our first runs, we were kind of left feeling with a little "is this it" kind of feeling. Not that the snow wasn't good, just that the runs were a bit short. We then took the C lift up, there was so much snow that our boards were not that far away from the snow while riding the lift!! There were tons of the white stuff!! near to the top we spied 2 girls who ventured off the side with the intention to ride under the lift, come a cropper and start to make the long arduous task of digging themselves back to solid base-land........they took ages doing this! We decided to ride down to the bottom again to see what the rest of the runs were like. The Guigui course was fun, we cut through the bushes and trees for some short untouched powder runs and then followed the course back down to the Mountain Restaurant. We actually took an early lunch.....I plumped for my standard katsu curry and was surprised to be given a cup full of what looked liked dishwater, to be told it was the "Soup Set"........if Peppered water passes as soup, I think they should fire the chef!! Back to the runs, I enjoyed these cruisy meandering runs, nothing challenging, just great fun on the powdery slopes with some surf-style switchbacks on the berms at the side of the piste, dropping in and out of the untouched as I went. We headed across to the Maiko area after lunch to check it out. At first glance, this is family and beginner central. The lower runs are all very cruisy greens, not much of a gradient at all and it was here that I had to wade out of my first waist deep powder hole of the day. On the lift up I spied a powder pocket with not a track, decided that to ride it all the way through I should stay high and cut down at the last minute and at all costs avoid charging down into the hole in the middle.........got a little excited and forgot my previous plan and got stuck. That was a wade out so not too bad. We headed over to the strangely named "Dolphin Course", the track from the lift is above a semi open bowl that is left ungroomed and strangely has skull and cross bone signs saying that it is not Patrolled. Most people headed over to the open face to drop in, we hung back a little and dropped a little into the treed area (it hardly warrants the use of the word "trees") but still it was nice to get untouched snow, lapped this a few times and each time we were dropping in earlier into the bowl. Finally a place here that is steep enough to allow you to ride the deep all the way through. Its pretty short though which is a shame because its one of the few places where the gradient helps you through the deep snow. I also got stuck here, at the bottom of the run where many people had tracked, leaves kinda big holes that when you get spit out into can halt your progress and get you stuck.....another wade, this time mid-stomach and had to use my board as a raft.
Last run of the day, decided to take the Gondola back up and enjoy that Guigui run again............instead of using the track, I cut through the pockets between the trails (actually it may be the Ranran course at this point) riding the snow when disaster strikes and my progress is halted......AGAIN!! This time though, I'm stuck good!! I'm not far from piste which fills me with confidence....I can just wade over there again. Not this time!! This snow was uber deep and every movement I made meant i sank further down. I had buried my board, found it, tried to use it as a shovel....failed....sank further......tried to use it as a life raft and was reasonably successful but it mean that snow build up at the front was getting into my face.........man I was tired!! thankfully this guy was passing and asked if I needed help, which I gladly accepted and he pulled, I kicked until I was finally free! That stuff was like concrete around my feet, almost sucking my boots right off them!! I really felt that this year I would be able to start doing proper out of bounds stuff but this has brought it back to me that actually perhaps I can't.
Ok, so this has turned into an Ippy style edition and I'm droning on....so a re-cap.....Maiko, nice little place for a day trip. Families and beginners will enjoy the mellow Maiko slopes and a weekday trip with no crowds will mean a lot of untouched for the Powder Hounds. Not really that much challenging runs in terms of gradient....this is a pretty mellow place and those runs that do have a bit of steepness are actually really short and its over before it began. Obviously I got stuck a few times and it got me thinking.......last season at Kagura I was riding the pow and trees there no probs, so why was I having so much problems with the Maiko stuff?? I figure that the snow, while great, isn't as light due to the altitude and also the gradient doesn't help when there are crazy amounts of snow, keeping momentum can be a challenge.........though I am loathe to suggest it but can a place have too MUCH snow?? Anyway, I had a great time, I didn't get to see the nice views that are meant to be here, but it was very picturesque.....I also missed out on the beer towers but if they were filling them up with the 600 yen cans of 350ml Asahi then I'm glad I passed.....couldn't have afforded it!!
Peppery Water
Source: Centleisure Maiko Jan 27th 2012
