Iwappara (Yuzawa, Niigata) - 24th January 2013

It looks like this weekend is going to be crazy snow time - hope so - and this morning the sun was out and so it was time to do some Iwappara-ing.

Iwappara in Yuzawa, always somewhere I say is perfect for beginners. There's a few pics here showing how wide the main area is. There's really two main bits to Iwappara - the lower wide bit and the top bit. I quickly head for the top quad and pretty much stay there in the top bit. Quite like that top run though there's not a huge amount of variation.

Fab views though.

Beautiful deep blue skies looking towards the peak, blown out bright looking skies towards the sun -- improving a bit as the morning progressed. Sadly I had to come back to get some work done, and some thin clouds were starting to form as well. If a day stays clear into an afternoon, I would guess a late afternoon might be the time to get the best contrast photos looking back towards Gunma...

The snow was, well, just ok. Better than I thought it would be considering the warm temps and rain the other day, especially higher up. And I had a fun morning.

But we need more. Tomorrow hopefully.

Shared a lift a few times with a guy who must have been in his 70's. He was really going for it, loving the top heavy mogul course too! Very cool.

Let's Iwappara.

--

Iiji-san. I like Iiji-san.









Unused Gondola





Since last season, this lift and part not open





Kanetsu



Contemplate





From the top







Above Kagura. Nice muffs.











Iwappara is this wide



The 'sort of' base, which is actually a bit up the mountain



The top bit

















It's not much further on than Iwappara, so I thought I'd go see how Daigenta Canyon was looking.

Rather nice as it happens