Day 4 - Snowy Shiga Kogen

Day 4 - Snowy Shiga kogen
This morning, the view of the carpark from Prince West was snowy and white.

The snow fell all day and did not stop. It was an epic first day, and the most snow we have ever skiied in. We have 3 days of Yakebitiyama tickets, then onto 3 days all mountain. We started the day with a few runs at the quad chair outside the west wing. Then, we headed over to the south wing gondola where we did a few runs, before hitting up the hooded quad outside east wing. We loved the D1 and D2 runs there, finding lots of powder to play in. The kids and the big kid found out that some powder is too much to move through, and got stuck a few times, always in view of the chair, moreso under it. It was a chilly -11 and the snow did not relent. I found visibility was a struggle at times.

Lunch was the place under the south gondola, where we like the food, except Dale did not like the chicken curry. Pork katsu for the win. After that we returned to the fun of the hooded quad and the runs off that. I must say I love the silent snow and the squeaks it makes, sure is much nicer than the scrapes of ice and hard snow we are used to in Australia. Here ever time I planted my poles, they squeaked.

By around 2:30pm we were fading, and cold, so we headed back over to the west wing, via the south goldola, and then down to the west wing of the Prince. Near the Prince we found a lovely stash of powder and had to have a frolick as only Queenslanders could, the kids dove and swam in the powder.

Onsen was high on the list to warm up, followed by Coolish from the vending machine, then dinner was at the Teppa room,(6,700yen) it was ok, not as good as it was in 2020. Really missing the Nepalese place. We ate and the tried to time our exit out to the bus stop as best we could, as there is no protection from anything, and it was windy, snowy and cold, so at the kids suggestion we huddled like penguins for the 5mins it took for the bus to come.Read more