Joetsu Kokusai, 3rd Jan 14

Spent the morning at Joetsu Kokusai.

As things were looking busy, decided to park over at the Osawa area which is always quieter. Was quiet when we got there, but the car park was close to full when we left just before 2pm.

Had a fun day. Snow is better up on the top Atema area than lower down, where it was a bit heavy.

One thing very noticeably is how relatively little snow there is yet. There's full cover, just not deep and lots of bushes still sticking out.

A few pics









Last year, this hut was pretty much almost covered...



And this was a big 'wall' of snow with an entrace cut out to get onto the slopes...



Atema area quad lift. Best snow found here.







Can still see the contours of the rice fields