It's done! Several seasons after seeing Muika’s first report and accompanying photos of Mt Granview, and after some near-misses, the timely intervention of onehunga made my dream visit to the big G come true. I must therefore start off by thanking both of them for helping me along the way. ![:thumbsup:]()
Tbh, I wasn’t expected much. Yes, its fame has spread far and wide since Muika’s review and Wizz’s follow-up visit but in the excitement to ride the hallowed slopes I’d forgotten to have another look at their photos and was left with the image of a small hill with a couple of old lifts. How wrong could I have been?
Well, as onehunga has already posted, we were lucky enough to go on a bluebird day with plenty of untracked fresh snow, so perhaps take the following with a pinch of salt but I can honestly say that Granview rocked!! I’ll stop babbling now and show you some photos:-
1. The overrun (with snow rather than people) Information Centre.
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2. Onehunga posing by the base lift.
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3. Old school!
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4. Powder field.
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5. X marks the spot!
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6. Onehunga about to drop in!
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7. Onehunga having dropped in!!
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8. Cheesy!
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9. The closed top lift.
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10. He came, he saw, he conquered!
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I even managed to go “backcountry”! I say that in the loosest sense of the word because I think where I went may once have been a part of the resort. However, I think it's now out-of-bounds and a bit of hiking was involved, as shown in the following pictorial, so I'm claiming this as BC and calling it the "Pylon Run":-
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So to sum up, Granview is THE quintessential Japanese ski resort. It's not big. It's not high. It's not steep. It's not new. But what it has that bigger, higher, steeper and newer resorts don't have is charm. Buckets of the stuff!! In fact I was so taken with the place that I began thinking of business plans to buy something there!! I kid you not, and if you don't believe me, go there and see it for yourself. I'm planning to go back there in the summer to see what it looks like without snow, then who knows!?
It's good to have dreams.![:D]()
Tbh, I wasn’t expected much. Yes, its fame has spread far and wide since Muika’s review and Wizz’s follow-up visit but in the excitement to ride the hallowed slopes I’d forgotten to have another look at their photos and was left with the image of a small hill with a couple of old lifts. How wrong could I have been?
Well, as onehunga has already posted, we were lucky enough to go on a bluebird day with plenty of untracked fresh snow, so perhaps take the following with a pinch of salt but I can honestly say that Granview rocked!! I’ll stop babbling now and show you some photos:-
1. The overrun (with snow rather than people) Information Centre.
2. Onehunga posing by the base lift.
3. Old school!
4. Powder field.
5. X marks the spot!
6. Onehunga about to drop in!
7. Onehunga having dropped in!!
8. Cheesy!
9. The closed top lift.
10. He came, he saw, he conquered!
I even managed to go “backcountry”! I say that in the loosest sense of the word because I think where I went may once have been a part of the resort. However, I think it's now out-of-bounds and a bit of hiking was involved, as shown in the following pictorial, so I'm claiming this as BC and calling it the "Pylon Run":-
So to sum up, Granview is THE quintessential Japanese ski resort. It's not big. It's not high. It's not steep. It's not new. But what it has that bigger, higher, steeper and newer resorts don't have is charm. Buckets of the stuff!! In fact I was so taken with the place that I began thinking of business plans to buy something there!! I kid you not, and if you don't believe me, go there and see it for yourself. I'm planning to go back there in the summer to see what it looks like without snow, then who knows!?
It's good to have dreams.
