The weather cleared so I actually got to see what I had been skiing yesterday. I immediately headed up top for pictures. I've also added a few pics to the reports of the past 2 days.
Here’s the start house for the 1998 Olympic Downhill.
There’s one more chair above that to 6,100 ft. Few were skiing up there in yesterday’s fog, so some morning fresh tracks here. But this face was short and the snow very wind affected so not worth a repeat.
At the top lots of people were taking pictures. Here are some nice looking chutes about 10-15 minutes walk above the top lift. Unfortunately they drain 3,500 feet into a valley north of the ski area. I’ll bet Bill Glude has skied that.
I returned to Skyline but the snow was cut up and not as soft as yesterday. Exiting the lift I took a catwalk that skirted a ravine separating the skier’s left Skyline/Sakka sector from the rest of the area. Here are the snow fences at the top of the ravine and some of the upper lifts beyond.
The upper gondola station across the ravine.
As I was taking pictures 2 snowboarders ducked the rope at full speed. The pristine snow was too tempting so I figured it was worth a shot they knew a reasonable way out and I followed their tracks. Here was my view as I dropped over the edge.
Looking back up about halfway down.
Bill Glude had informed me that the ravines are full of small flood control dams, again similar to SoCal mountains but on a much larger scale. One of these is at lower right and another at left center. The powder terrain is the open area at far upper left ~800 vertical and the trees just to the right of that ~1000 vertical.
Zoom of tracks in the open part.
After crossing the ravine I ended up on a zigzag beginner catwalk, then a cruiser to the Sakka base. Needless to say it was well worth taking 2 chairs back to the top of Skyline and repeating this circuit 3x more before lunch. It still looked like this on the 4th lap at 12:30:
After lunch the clouds finally lifted to reveal the higher Japan Alps peaks up to 10,000 feet.
I had spied another skier from a distance so I headed up top for another illicit adventure. On the way up, a view of Hakuba 47 ski runs.
I skied along the windswept far skier’s left ridgeline to this view.
This drains into that same valley north of the ski area as viewed earlier from the top. So I need to traverse out of the bowl soon enough to make it back into the ski area at center right.
The steep snow in the chutes below me was windpacked. Below them I finally reached the powder.
About 5 turns of that and I bailed out to make sure I wouldn’t have to hike up the ridge at right.
Looking back where I had skied as I reentered the ski area. I dropped in the chute where the boundary of cloud and clear intersects the top ridge.
From the same spot the view down the valley to more flood control dams and the high Alps beyond.
I called it a day about 3:15 after 20,800 and one final run through the morning’s still powdery stash. No question about the 6K of powder today. View of Hakuba village from about 1,000 feet above the base.
Here’s the start house for the 1998 Olympic Downhill.
There’s one more chair above that to 6,100 ft. Few were skiing up there in yesterday’s fog, so some morning fresh tracks here. But this face was short and the snow very wind affected so not worth a repeat.
At the top lots of people were taking pictures. Here are some nice looking chutes about 10-15 minutes walk above the top lift. Unfortunately they drain 3,500 feet into a valley north of the ski area. I’ll bet Bill Glude has skied that.
I returned to Skyline but the snow was cut up and not as soft as yesterday. Exiting the lift I took a catwalk that skirted a ravine separating the skier’s left Skyline/Sakka sector from the rest of the area. Here are the snow fences at the top of the ravine and some of the upper lifts beyond.
The upper gondola station across the ravine.
As I was taking pictures 2 snowboarders ducked the rope at full speed. The pristine snow was too tempting so I figured it was worth a shot they knew a reasonable way out and I followed their tracks. Here was my view as I dropped over the edge.
Looking back up about halfway down.
Bill Glude had informed me that the ravines are full of small flood control dams, again similar to SoCal mountains but on a much larger scale. One of these is at lower right and another at left center. The powder terrain is the open area at far upper left ~800 vertical and the trees just to the right of that ~1000 vertical.
Zoom of tracks in the open part.
After crossing the ravine I ended up on a zigzag beginner catwalk, then a cruiser to the Sakka base. Needless to say it was well worth taking 2 chairs back to the top of Skyline and repeating this circuit 3x more before lunch. It still looked like this on the 4th lap at 12:30:
After lunch the clouds finally lifted to reveal the higher Japan Alps peaks up to 10,000 feet.
I had spied another skier from a distance so I headed up top for another illicit adventure. On the way up, a view of Hakuba 47 ski runs.
I skied along the windswept far skier’s left ridgeline to this view.
This drains into that same valley north of the ski area as viewed earlier from the top. So I need to traverse out of the bowl soon enough to make it back into the ski area at center right.
The steep snow in the chutes below me was windpacked. Below them I finally reached the powder.
About 5 turns of that and I bailed out to make sure I wouldn’t have to hike up the ridge at right.
Looking back where I had skied as I reentered the ski area. I dropped in the chute where the boundary of cloud and clear intersects the top ridge.
From the same spot the view down the valley to more flood control dams and the high Alps beyond.
I called it a day about 3:15 after 20,800 and one final run through the morning’s still powdery stash. No question about the 6K of powder today. View of Hakuba village from about 1,000 feet above the base.
