Hakuba Iwatake / ◎190cm / Snowy2021.Feb.23
The 48th Annual Iwatake National Student Ski Competition, which is limited to “open” (individual) entrants only this year, saw the start of the Demonstration Skiing tournament kick off today. Thorough measures designed to prevent coronavirus infection have been put in place, and in keeping with those precautions the participants lined up at the starting gate (pictured) exchanged very few words.Despite the large number of people, the atmosphere was marked by a surprising silence.
[Big Bahn]
There were a total of 592 men and 262 women scheduled to participate in the Demonstration Skiing portion of the competition. Today and tomorrow qualifying heats will be run for short and wide parallel turns. Some members of the Tokyo University of Science team explained to me, “We are all making our freshman debut at the National Student Competition. It’s disappointing that there isn’t a separate freshman competition this year.”
[Big Bahn]
Today the DC PARK reopened following yesterday’s remake to improve poor conditions caused by the warm temperatures and strong winds of last week. Conditions are still difficult, as snow throughout the park is generally hard and rough, including the groomed areas and the items themselves. (*Both 9m kickers are still closed.) Yet even with those tough conditions, or maybe because of them, a number of people could still be seen challenging themselves in the terrain park.
[South]
Even around 11:30 a.m., cold north winds near the summit continued to carry with them a steady fall of snow. The South Slope, Sunny Valley Course and Paradise Slope featured hard, granular groomed surfaces covered with a thin layer of fresh snow. With those conditions it was easy to gain speed, but hard to get an edge in places.
[Sunny Valley Course]
[Availability Information for Feb. 23]
* All Areas Available ! (except for North)
* Available Lifts … Gondola (8:00 a.m.–), totally 7 lifts
* Lift Fees … 1-day Ticket Adults JPY4,600 / Children JPY2,800 / 60-69 y/o JPY4,100 / 70 and Over JPY3,200
＊HAKUBA S-CLASS … Adults JPY8,800, Children JPY4,400, Free for under 6 years old (Dec. 26 Scheduled to open）
*Request for the original data of our photographs
