The second of a two day visit to Katashina Village, Gunma (片品村, 群馬県) saw me wake in the Snow Par Ogna Hotaka (スノーパル・オグナほたか） parking lot to frost covered windows. It was a little disconcerting to see the frost on the inside of the car, but I had stayed warm and slept comfortably enough not to be too worried. This did however impress upon me the importance of checking low temperature forecasts for high elevations, particularly during the winter months. It’s always the obvious things that tend to bite me in the ass.
Snow Par has a decent elevation of 1800m, but isn’t really a challenging or even interesting resort. It definitely is for families with an emphasis placed on downhill racing. Days like this aren’t quite as bad when you remember it only cost about $30 for your half day pass. Venturing off the course and into the trees, as patrol informed us, was pretty much not allowed. This was actually my first negative interaction with ski patrol in Japan. There is a row of trees (maybe 10m wide) separating the Slalom (スラローム) and Training (トレーニング) courses. Snow wasn’t great, but it was untracked and we decided to go for it. That’s about when I noticed the patrol snowmobile watching down below.
We stopped and waited hoping that he would lose interest…he didn’t. Periodically he started sounding the siren, directing us to ski down. Eventually he realized we weren’t moving and decided to fire his way up to our position on the hill. No doubt he was ready to deliver a stern lecture, but then he saw the goofy ass grinning gaijin (me). Aptly judging my poor understanding of Japanese, he opted instead to cross his forearms and outstretched fingers in front of his face to form an “x”. He then said “駄目” (“だめ”), which basically translates to “No Good.” He gave us a hard stare and then let us ski off with our lift tickets intact.
Still not sure how to act after the chastising, we decided to make the three lift journey to the top of the resort. We bumped into an American snowboarder along the way and related our plight. He said that the resort wasn’t anything special in terms of riding; he had only ever used the lifts for backcountry access. The No. 6 Pair (第６ペア) lift delivers riders relatively close to the opposite end of the Mt. Hotaka (武尊山) ridge line mentioned in my Kawaba (川場) post. He told me that it wasn’t too difficult of a trek with snowshoes up to the ridge and that it was a really nice ride back out to the resort. I thought about following him up, but the trail wasn’t compacted well enough for me to boot pack without sinking up to my thighs and I was too lazy.
From studying the course map and a bit of preliminary scouting, the tree covered bowl west of the No. 6 Pair lift seemed fun and relatively safe. Ducking under a rope placed us into some good deep powder. We raced out of view from the piste still firmly aware of the ever-vigilant patrol. The upper portion of the bowl had widely spaced trees and nice deep snow. If these conditions were indicative of the skiing off the ridge, the snowboarder definitely knew what he was talking about. Tree spacings got tighter and tighter as we moved down through the bowl. I was still having fun; but again, I’m willing to put up with face scratching tight trees. Boarders and even most skiers aren’t recommended to try this area as the vegetation is just too close. Honestly, I probably won’t go in again (especially when the ridge has much better possibilities).
Near the end of the half day we tried skiing the No. 4 Pair (第４ペア) lift. Topography of the resort hides the trees north of the Daisawa (大沢) course from view and we were able to ski straight off the lift, over an old fence, and duck into the trees without drawing attention. The snow was pretty good and it was a blast skirting through the larch. Popping out of the trees at the end of the run can still be done in a discreet manner, too. I probably skied this area five times without incident.
Would I recommend Snow Par to families with small children looking for someplace close to Tokyo? The answer is yes. Would I recommend the resort to teenagers/adults of intermediate ability? Probably not because the resort is pretty small and boring. What about experts? If you’re into a backcountry and go on a good day it could be amazing. Otherwise, you’re better off trying someplace else.
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- Alright area, but much to be desired
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- Hanging out
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- Carvin’
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- Heaven
