Hakuba

Today was our first full day at Hakuba. In short, we skied all day, then went for dinner and collapsed into bed. The longer version follows.

After a night of fresh snowfall we had an early start, aiming to get out on the snow before the crowds came (being a long weekend in Japan). Armed with our ski gear, we took the lodge bus out to Hakuba Goryu, which was where conventional wisdom indicated the best skiing would be. Hakuba is a strange ski place - 10 different resorts, each of 6-20 lifts, spread out along the valley. Goryu is just about the closest resort to our lodge, has 1 gondola and 12 chairlifts, a maximum height of 1680m and a vertical drop of 900m. But it's connect with Hakuba47, which has another gondola and 5 chairlifts.

We started with a few simple green runs down the bottom, and then met up with Paul, Jules, Seanie & Daisy to take the gondola to the to. Here the skiing was great, and so was the scenery (occasionally obliterated by low cloud). After a fun morning, we skied back to the bottom for lunch - pretty hairy in places, especially when visibility was low, but we all made it OK. In total, it was about 25 minutes of hard skiing to get down ...

After lunch we headed straight back to the top, and then skied down to Hakuba47 to play on the terrain park, before making our way home (down the same hill as before, except that Nat opted for the gondola down) and shuttle bus to home.

We still had time for a traditional Japanese onsen in our lodge, and then headed to dinner (Mexican crossed with Japanese - e.g. Katy had chicken teriyaki tacos). Hoping for a big slope and lots more snow to fall overnight.