D5 - All Mountain snow

Today was an all-mountain day. We had bought 2 day all mountain passes in adult/child and adult/student packs. We had our usual full up at the breakfast buffet then geared up by 8:30am.

We headed to Diamond, then spent did a few laps of Ichinose Family. The green run was a favourite as they could cut some corners and go off to the side and up some walls. From here we headed over to tanne no mori for a few runs amoungst the trees. Here Jason had a pretty good stack after a brush seperated his skis.

After this we headed to Takamagahara, did a run or two, then headed down to Hoppo Bunadaira. This is usually one of my favourite places, but the snow was a bit crunchy and scraped over here and I wasn't feeling it. Hubby and the kids did another lap while I waited at Aspen Shiga.
We had a delightful lunch here. The kids love the spaghetti, I had udon and hubby had what he proclaimed to be the best kaarage he has eaten.

On our way out we saw snow monkeys were running around and climbing on the roof of the hotel. We watched the family of monkeys play and forrage for food for a bit. They were very close and had no qualms that people were all around.

We then headed for the chair to the left of the gondola and headed up Nishitateyama. This was my favourite place for the day and the snow was good, soft with even cover. We did a few runs here, and then headed for home as we were a bit tired. So back up he chair and then headed down the other side crossing the bridge, which seemed much easier this year than those past.

Our homeward journey had us revisit Takamagahara and Tanne no mori, the back to Family. A few runs here were had, and then son wanted a run of Diamond, so we ended up doing a few Diamond runs, before heading back to the Prince for a well earned onsen. It was about 2:30pm for our return.Read more