All aboard at Yuzawa Nakazato!! The 2024-25 season was a really snowy one at Nakazato and I visited Yuzawa in a really really snowy phase. At other ski areas in Yuzawa there had been 60cm each day for a few days, so I thought it was a good time to visit Nakazato in the ongoing quest to find more little gem ski areas. The snow base at Nakazato was about 2.7 metres, and considering all the snow overnight in Minamiuonuma, I assumed Nakazato was going to be gold. Alas, it was not.

It was good to check out the terrain, but despite being very snowy, the snow was really off. Firstly there wasn’t enough fresh snow at Nakazato for a proper reset (even though nearby ski areas were pounded with snow overnight). The day before it had warmed a fraction at sister resort Maiko without souring the snow too much, yet the small difference in elevation at Nakazato plus aspect must have played a part in the poor snow quality.

Off chair lift #1, one of the piste on lookers’ right had big avalanche debris all over it with a very light covering of fresh. The avalanche was somewhat surprising, although perhaps not considering how much snow had fallen, the aspect, and the short-lived temperature rise. Most of the trees on that side fall into the non-kosher category, and they were not appealing anyhow, with a combination of chunky snow and an ice crust just below the surface. The areas under chair 1 and 2 almost looked like it had an onsen running under it considering the many glide cracks yet it was probably just the aspect factor. In the kosher zones that have a NW aspect, the lines were wind affected, with lips and other nasties. So instead, I moved over to the #5 lift and had some fun running lines of shallow powder on the intermediate piste.

Nakazato is probably good for easy untracked lines when there’s fresh snow and consistent cold temperatures, but luck was not on my side that day. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
See our video here