REPORT

This morning, I had a chat with three guests from Kanagawa (pictured), who told me, “We always use Orion Tour for snowboarding trips. This time, we brought along a friend who’s snowboarding for the first time. The snow today is soft and very easy to ride!” With a reputation as the “holy land for snow-sport beginners,” Yuzawa Nakazato Snow Resort opened with the majority of its runs available for skiing and snowboarding on 12/28 (Sat.), before reaching “fully open” status on 1/10 (Sat.).
[Smile Course]

I decided to ride the No. 1 Express Lift (642 m), which began operating at 9:00 a.m., up to the summit, then dropped straight into the Panorama Course (pictured), which features a maximum pitch of 25 degrees and an average of 17 degrees. Linking Panorama with the Joyful Course and continuing all the way back to the No. 1 Express Lift base makes for a highly efficient long run that loops widely around the mountain, delivering a satisfying 2,000 m descent in one go.
[Panorama Course]

On both the Panorama and Joyful courses, about 5 cm of light new snow sat on top of well-set, groomed wet snow, giving my edges plenty of bite and letting me build speed comfortably. By the way, on the far right of this photo, beyond the Smile Course, you can see the No. 4 Lift running along the ridgeline, with the Parallel Course spread out behind it and the No. 6 Slope extending even farther beyond — illustrating how Yuzawa Nakazato stretches across a wide section of the mountain.
[Joyful Course]

The Smile Course (pictured; maximum 14 degrees, average 9 degrees, 1,010 m), also featured about 5 cm of relatively dry new snow on top of a moderately firm, groomed wet-snow base. Nakazato stands out for its broad, gentle, and forgiving slopes, and for my next report I’d like to focus on the resort’s unique facilities and services. Incidentally, the early snowfall eased around 8:00 a.m., then picked up again from around 8:30 a.m., gradually intensifying through the daytime hours.
[Smile Course]

　
[Yuzawa Nakazato Details on 1/14 (Wed.)]
＊Fully OPEN (Except for No.6, N.6 Event)
＊Operating Lifts … No.1 Express (8:30～) and totally 4 lifts
＊Fees … 1-Day Pass Adult JPY6,400, 6 to 12 y/o JPY3,200
　
＊Request for the original data of our photographs
　
reported by Snownavi