46 replies to this topic

[muikabochi]

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this last week I went over to Zao in Yamagata. It's a 4 hour drive from Muikamachi, more than half of that on local roads, so out of range for a day trip. But it is well worth it and well worth more than a day or two.

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/resorts/resort_map.php?resortNo=82

I can see why ILoveZao decided on that username. I love it too. It's a magical place. In fact, I think it is my favourite ski-jo, taken as a whole package. Not just because of the mad stunning scenery and other-worldly kind of feel to some areas, but I really like the skiing on offer too. Lots of long cruising runs, tons to choose from. I like the onsen too. It just feels like a really top place, the only thing being that there's really not much going on in the evenings or choice of restaurants etc, but that has been discussed before. Nowhere can be perfect I suppose!

Anyway, I can't think of many words other than to say what a fantastic place this is. I would highly recommend anyone to get here if you can and experience it. And I hope you can get an idea of that from some of these images. But it must be said though that even with pretty pictures, the impact of actually being there and seeing all of this up close in person is just amazing. It's funny going up on the gondola with lots of people going up for their first time, all you hear is "sugoiiiiiiiiiii" and gasps as people take it all in.



(I'm never going to beat that one photo I took last year but here's an attempt at something similar!)







Up top as the sun goes down. I changed into my wellies and went up the Gondola around 4:30pm. Between that time and around 5:30pm, the colours were changing by the minute. Marvellous. Not much experience with low light photos, but took a lot and managed to get a few fairly decent ones.

[muikabochi]

Oops!

[muikabochi]

I love you!





Climbing









Lunchtime









The photos below are close-ups of what you can see in the above photos. Think, big scale!

[muikabochi]

[muikabochi]

Oh yes I forgot looks like someone was expecting me!

Click to reveal..

And thanks Metabo Oyaji for the info.

[Black Mountain]

Brilliant as usual!

[norcal]

Awesome pics! I take it the snow will be good up there for at least the next few weeks?

[joshnii]

Sublime!

[Metabo Oyaji]

[miller]

Amazing images

Love the close-ups of the snow on that mountainside like the one below. Looks like an alien planet or something.

[SKI]

Well done muika, you must be pleased!
You have a real talent.
Spectacular indeed.

Where is this bit to be found then?

[Metabo Oyaji]

And where was this found?

Originally Posted By: muikabochi

[ILoveZao]

I am very impressed, such excellent photographs muikabochi.
Glad you had such a good time too.
I'll let you answer those questions.

[@tokyo]

How busy was it muikabochi?

[grungy-gonads]

Love it!

Is that your nose on the floor?

[muikabochi]

Thanks. OK the questions

Originally Posted By: norcal

Awesome pics! I take it the snow will be good up there for at least the next few weeks?

I think Zao goes on until May even but I doubt the Monsters will last much longer unless we get a good blast of winter of course. There was quite a bit of branch sticking out of lots and just a bit lower down especially on the sunny side, a fair few monsters were 'collapsing' so to speak.

Check out the Zao 10/11 thead to see some pics on how quickly the monsters disappeared last year!

[muikabochi]

Originally Posted By: SKI

Well done muika, you must be pleased!
You have a real talent.
Spectacular indeed.

Where is this bit to be found then?

SKI, you get off the gondola at the top of the resort and walk up a couple of hundred metres by the side of the Monsters. You will be rewarded with that lot!

Actually I really don't understand their policy about letting people go up there. They seem to let people go at times, and then try to get people not to go 'beyond the red ropes' at other times. Doesn't seem consistent. Luckly when I went up there and got most of my pics they weren't fussing and there were quite a few people going up there.

I would have been very disappointed if I couldn't have gone up there.

[muikabochi]

Metabo the muikabochi snow sculpture was found at the top of one of the quad lifts on the left hand side of the resort. I had to get off my skis and walk back into the top area to get that. Funny.

[muikabochi]

The top area was busy with tourists as well as skiers/snowboarders, but on the 4 times I used the top gondola I waited

- 2 minutes
- 1 minute
- no wait, walked on
- no wait, walked on

I'm not keen on small ropeways when they pack you in, so I didn't get on that lower Zao Ropeway.

Lifts were not busy at all. No waiting at all.

It was by no means empty though, it wasn't ghost resort like some of the places around here on a weekday - still people around everywhere.

One thing I noticed was that even though it was not busy at all, pretty much all the lifts were moving and it felt like it was fully open which you can't say about all places these days.

[pie-eater]

Fabtastic!
No coffee break or lunchtime closing times then?