Ryuoo Ski Park (Yamanouchi, Nagano)

Ryuo Ski Park has been on my list for a while now and I was always leaving it to go there on a fine and clear day. I had some time that I could use today and so looking at the forecasts last night I thought the day for Ryuo had arrived – forecasts were for clear weather and sunny warm temps. Better go now before spring really takes hold, was part of the thinking too.

So left home just before 7am and it was sunny here, so hopeful that I’d get a really nice clear one over there. Come round the corner from Nozawa on Route 117 to check out Kijimadaira…. where is it?!? Oh dear, lost in thick haze. Had to laugh, I really could barely make out the outline of the Kijimadaira mountain. Off to the right Madarao was lost in the haze. Seeing that the whole region was covered in this thick ‘haze’ which made it terrible conditions for good contrast pics, I kind of gave up on this being a pics day and just decided that I’d have to enjoy exploring the new place.

So arrived just before 8:30am so about 90 minutes drive.

First thing I notice after getting my ticket…what’s with the crowds?! It was really busy. Like weekend at really popular place busy. The busiest I have seen anywhere this season…on a Wednesday? Queueing for lifts? What’s with that then?! Need to wait for the second Ropeway because there’s too many for the first one? Objection!!

Second thing I notice…is this a snowboarders only resort? It took me a while to find another skier out there. No kidding, it must have been more than 95% boarders. I felt like I had busted in on a boarders party or something. Any particular reason for that? ‘Ryou Ski Park’ as a name seems a bit strange!

I thought I’d get to the top first for the views (haha) and also to escape all the crowds as more buses were piling in by the minute. So up on the Ropeway. Here’s the view from the top looking towards Kosha-related skijo (Yomase on the left and X Jam):

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Oh dear. Lovely view of Myoko? Not a chance!

Epic fail!

:lol:

The top area basically has one quad lift. (There’s also a 160m pair lift but that just brings you back up to where you need to be). The quad lift is over 1km long, but it doesn’t really go ‘up’ much, more like ‘across’. It goes through lots of lovely trees and the courses that zig-zag down through all of the trees are very…pleasant. But it’s all very flat. I had to push myself along in a few places. I may not have told people but I do really love trees, but these trees didn’t really do much for me. It was all a bit same-y, flat and…well, I had enough after 4 runs up there. Compared with the similarly lined up trees at Joetsu Kokusai where I was yesterday - the trees at Joetsu Kokusai are more interesting/photogenic.

At least there was a bit of blue sky at the top area.

Pleasant:

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Pleasant:

So on to the ‘main bit’ which are the steep ungroomed runs down from the top of the Ropeway. It warns you before you enter that it’s only for advanced skilled people. So obviously lots of near beginners totally ignore that and the fairly narrow course is littered with boarders - I say boarders only because there really were no skiers! - sitting down, falling over, crashing and shouting ‘yabai’. It was quite funny actually in a way after the initial irritation. It’s quite steep, not very wide but I see there’s lots of tree potential. No doubt that is why ippy loves it here. (Correct me if I am wrong!) I must admit it was a bit much for me as well at the moment because my knee is a bit weak. Lots of fun there though for sure.

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Gnarly:

But the problem I see with that area, apart from all of the people falling over and stranded is that you need to get that Ropeway back up. And you need to wait for the Ropeway etc. Not into Ropeways myself, I much prefer a fast quad whizzing up. So with the crowds today, there really was no quick way up. Example when I came down it was 5 minutes before the next Ropeway, but that filled up, so had to wait for the next one after that. That was 25 minutes just standing around. If I had gone off to ski another lift, the queue would have grown again so didn't feel I had much choice if I wanted to go back up.

I didn’t spend much time in the base area, but it seemed like the usual mix of pair/quad lifts and courses. Crazy busy.

I’m sure I would have been happier if the weather had been clear allowing me to take good pics, but I don’t think Ryuoo is really my bag.

It obviously is lots of people’s bag though, with all the crowds.

Still can’t quite believe how busy it was. Why?! (Yeah, yeah, I know Mt Granview is closed today).

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