Day 5 - on snow all mountain

Today is Dale's 14th birthday. We woke to some snow on the ground and a bit in the trees. Regular breaky routine took place, and we were out by 8:30am. (Today is an eating and snow day, you are forewarned).

The plan for today was to head straight to Aspen Shiga to actually have some pastries before they sold out. So out of Prince, down Diamond (less sheet ice today thankfully), across the bridge and up Family quad. From here, we deviated into Terakoya and then down to Hoppo- Bunadaira. Then powder had been well and truly tracked out.

It was 10am, Aspen Shiga was open, there was pastries. But they were all savoury (I'm a sweet tooth). Hot chocolates were had Jason and Dale had a pastry. As we were sitting there, out came a few more trays of bakery goodness. The custard bread that is just devine. Oscar and I got one, hubbyhad one too (to split with the b'day girl).

From here, we decided to head to Yokoteyama ski area. We have never been in all our trips to Shiga Kogen. Probably best to visit the 2300m elevation when its not like pea soup, but alas, we ventured onward and upward. By the time we got to the top. We were very cold. We saw the crumpet cafe but also saw the Mt Bakery. So we headed into the bakery for more hot chocolate and some lovely filled bread. Hubby got curry, Dale got cheese, and Oscar and I split a chocolate and custard one.

We worked out which way was down and began our descent. Some of the switchbacks were very icy. The lower parts under the chair were nice. It was 12:20 when we were down, so we decided to ski Kumanoyu area. Now I'm sure there is an easier way to get to it from the bottom of Yokoteyama chair #1. We were directed to go down the road and then decend off the side, a path that was frozen solid and looked like it had 2 tracks where everyone had slid down. This was with skis off, after we all made it down (kids but slid) we put the skis on and headed through what seemed to be a carpark towards a hotel entrance. Now where do we go we thought. We a guy skis past us and heads to the door, but then turns left, there was another path. Equally as dubious as the first, this one however we climbed a bit, ski on and went through some garden and around a few buildings. The rest of my family skied down the icy path and ove rthe bridge to where we found some lifts (up on a hill). I, however, saw a remove skis here sign, and did so, trying not to slip on my pick you way through the frozen footsteps down the path.

We ended up doing one run at Kumanoyu, before deciding we should aim for the 2:20 bus. Now we just needed to find where the bus stop was. Asked a local, found it, got in line, a bus came, but those in front of us did not get on. A person behind us got on, so we did the same. The bust went back up to Yokoteyama. As it was the last stop, the driver made us get out, so we joined the line and got back on. 3 out of the 4 of us got a seat. Now we realise why those in front of us did not get on.

Back at the Shiga Kogen bus station, we caught the gondola back down, the quad up, and headed through Takamagahara to Ichinose, over the bridge and back up Diamond and down to Prince, the back up C1, and down to the door. The return journey was cold and just as icy as the day before. The new snow was all but scraped off.

Back just after 4pm, freezing cold, the onsen was calling loudly. Then we were on the 5pm shuttle to Dale's birthday restaurant selection, the junk food cafe. They gave her a complimentary piece of cake and took our picture on a polaroid. She had never seen on before and was astonished by being given the picture. We were back at the Prince via the 6:15 shuttle to end our day.Read more