蔵王山

Intro

導入

I often head to Zao during the winter months. The drive from my place is nice and slow, coming through the Iide Mountains and then into the heart of Yamagata. The scenery is super pretty, and it makes the drive enjoyable.

On the way, I always stop in the small towns for some ramen and onsens. Each restaurant has its own style, which makes me want to visit as many ramen spots as I can. I always go to Seikikawa Onsen on the way home, though.

When I finally pull into the resort, things can get a little hectic with all the people, buses, and cars flashing their emergency lights everywhere. It looks chaotic, but it’s pretty easy to figure out just avoid the back alleyways!

Zao Onsen has a few resorts around the mountain, so it’s relatively easy to get around. I usually head straight to the top and down to this north-facing ridgeline that has lots of short, lappable routes, with two chairlift rides back to the start, a retaining wall that you can blast off from in the right conditions, and the chance to ski with the 樹氷 (snow monsters). It’s probably my favorite in-bounds area to ski in the world.

Snow Monsters

樹氷

Snow Monsters are the main draw to Zao Onsen. The resort has the best access to them out of any other resort I have been to where their appearance is common. The ropeway will take you straight up to absolutely massive ones; however, they are best found at higher elevations. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to make it to the high mountain yet due to bad weather timing.

These frosty trees occur because cold air from Siberia collides with warm, moisture-rich air from the Sea of Japan, creating the conditions for rapid ice and snow buildup on Aomori pine trees. These coniferous trees are essentially perfect humidity collectors, leading to a very quick accumulation of frost due to the wind and cold weather at the top of the mountains. The end result is these beautiful formations of large towers of icy, snowy structures.

And last here are a few short clips of my favorite ridge, it was rather icy the last time I went underneath but I got some good turns in. If it is high tide then its phenomanal.