What a fun afternoon! There was a little fresh snow, and usually when you head to a ski resort in the afternoon the fresh tracks have been ripped to shreds, but not at Shizenkan! It was a national holiday and it was heaving at Yudonosan that morning, whilst at Shizenkan it was really quiet.

Asahi Shizenkan and many other Yamagata and Miyagi ski areas were having a shocker of a season. The local ski area for the town of Nishikawa was fully closed due to an absence of snow, and Shizenkan had less than half of its usual base for early February. Nevertheless we could still ski in the trees but had to keep an eye out for fallen logs, and there were a couple of open gullies and more undergrowth than usual, but it was still fun with the fresh powder lines (in the afternoon!). Gotta love the Tohoku cedars that grow wide apart, making for ideal tree skiing terrain! Out on the piste terrain, the fresh snow was somewhat sun affected, so skiing just to the side of the piste wasn’t so good.

You can see how we rated Shizenkan on various factors on the Honshu ski resort ratings page.
See our video here