Gassan, Yamagata 2014.4.29

Tuesday was a holiday, weather forecast looked reasonable for Gassan, so we made the early morning road trip, planning to get afternoon tickets (11:30-16:30).




The drive up was relatively uncrowded for a holiday, and we got to the parking lot around 10:30. 500 yen parking fee, which goes towards conservation efforts, and in return for which one gets a Gassan sticker, which went straight onto the kid's snowboard.

The map near the parking lot shows the layout. One pair lift on the right, with some T-bars (really rope-tows with detachable T handles) to the left, on Ubagatake. That day, only the T-lift closest to the chair lift was operating, though at least one other seems to have been installed.



From the little pension mura at the base, it is a 500 meter walk up to the Ski Center/restaurant/lift base station. A caterpillar car is there to take skis and boards up, and only skis and boards -- no people, no backpacks or other equipment. Still, nice not to have to carry up the skis.





We got to the base building a bit early, just after 11:00, so had an early lunch while waiting for the afternoon tickets to go on sale.

Then it was off: