Kawaba (川場)

Anyone interested in skiing the Kan-Etsu corridor (関越自動車道) of Gumna/Niigata should check out Kawaba (川場スキー場). This small resort northeast of Numata (沼田町) offers solid skiing and quality dirt bag amenities. Apologies for the oxymoron, but I’m not a good enough writer to ferret out  something better. Feel free to read up on “Dirtbaggin’ Like Kings: A Night at Kawaba” for a better understanding.

Kawaba is pretty tall for a resort in the Numata/Minakami (水上町) region. Having a high lift serviced elevation (1870m) guards against mid-season rain and keeps its snowbase in the upper portion of Honshu (本州) resorts. For this reason alone I recommend anyone visiting this area chose Kawaba over Naeba/Kagura .

We skied on Dec. 30th with peculiar weather. The top of the resort serviced by the Crystal Express Quad (クリスタルエクスプレス) was cold and shrouded in clouds. Everything below was warm with blue skies and bright sunshine. Most the day we spent near the top because the cold and lack of sun best preserved the snow. Two courses separated by an evergreen stand were the only routes down from the Crystal Express. Both courses were fine; however, there was powder in the evergreens. No one else seemed interested (typical Japanese style), so we had run after run to ourselves.

Near the end of the day we decided to boot back up a cat track to the top of the Takate pair lift (高手ペア). Since this chair was closed we were the first ones in that day. The lift was low enough that we had blue skies with fresh tracks. Near the bottom of the chair there was a powder course and it would have been great, but the warm weather made the snow really wet. Once done we decided to ski back to the lodge and head home.

Poor visibility from the clouds prevented me from honestly gaging the backcountry. From a crude study of the course map it looks like the Crystal Express is close to the ridge line going up to the top of Mt. Kengamine （剣ヶ峰山) at 2020m. A few kilometers further along the ridge from Mt. Kengamine is Mt. Hotaka (武尊山) with an elevation of 2158m. Mt. Hotaka is one of the 100 Famous Mountains of Japan (百名山日本） and definitely worth a climb in the warmer months.

With proper research and preparation there should be ample opportunity to ski off the ridge or even tour all the way to Mt. Hotaka and beyond. Just be careful to either return back to Kawaba or traverse the ridge all the way to Snow Par Ogna Hotaka (スノーパル・オグナ武尊), because it’s a long ski out to Route 64. Kawaba sells single ride tickets for ４００円 making 1870m backcountry access cost only 800円. They also sell single ride tickets in packs of six for 2200円. If you and your buddies visit often, buying in bulk will save some money.

Trees of Lower Kawaba

Course from the Takate Chair

Close up of the powder course

Left of the powder course

Looking up at the powder course