富良野スキー場 富良野ZONE — Attraction in Furano

It was a one hour wait to get a lift ticket at the Kitanomine side because there were only two cashiers and the ticket purchase process was extremely slow.

When we finally got our day ticket, the Kitanomine gondola broke down and we had to wait for a shuttle bus to take us to the Furano side.

We were crammed on to the shuttle bus and there were only two shuttle buses operating despite hundreds of people waiting. Despite the bus being over-full, the shuttle stopped twice to pick up people from other hotels.

When we got to Furano, there was a HUGE line for the Furano ropeway. There are only two gondolas on the entire ropeway so we had to wait another 30 minutes in this line, even though each gondola on the Furano Ropeway carries 100 people.

Everything is terribly inefficient and slow and unorganised.

We got to the ticket desk at 0830 and we were not on the slopes skiing until 1130.

I wouldn’t recommend coming here.

My advice to the resort is to modernise the ticket purchase process and/or put on more cashiers, and increase the number and frequency of shuttles between the Kitanomine and Furano areas.

EDIT:

I skied Furano for five days after my initial day for which I wrote the above review (and have one star). With a huge and continuous fall of snow after my first day, I found the runs to be absolutely superb. Some of the best powder skiing I have done with over a metre of powder in some areas.

I still found the ticket purchase process at Kitanomine to be incredibly slow, but the experience on my first day seemed to be out of the ordinary: there was a high influx of locals on this particular day.

On every other day, the lift lines (including the lines for the Kitanomine Gondola and Furano ropeway) were not too bad, but the Kitanomine Gondola again broke down and was out of action for another two days. I could still ski Kitanomine, but had to start at Furano Ropeway and link-run over the to the Kitanomine quad.

This was a very unique and enjoyable experience (except for the first day described above in my initial review). This ‘small town’ ski resort is becoming more popular so I will be interested to see how Prince Resorts responds to the...

The snow is ok/good -ish (on normal non dumping days) Food is ok at best. Prices are good. Resort is run poorly. Zero enforcement on rules. The tourist crowd/mentality is horrible. The staff while mostly friendly caters too much to Western type styles and doesn't feel like a true Japan cultured experience. If first time here, it will give you the completely wrong impression of how good Japan can be.

Back to the snow, off piste is ok, not bad, not great. There are some small areas of good tree runs (for the tree runs seekers), most aren't so good. The snow quality (if you catch some freshies) is the typical amazing JAPOW stuff when/if you time a good storm.

However this is a great place to learn as the lower parts of the mountain has nice wide open runs. Which is also why there are lots of classes with huge amounts of trainees.

NOTE** THERE IS NO TERRAIN PARK OR JUMPS TO PLAY ON. The maps, and Google search are wrong. Locals say they hasnt been one in years. This sucks if you like to play in the park. We thought, through research and looking at all the trail maps, there were parks to play in. NOPE. Side hits will be your best friend, if you can get to it in-between the mass of people sitting in the trail paths.

Off the resort there are some amazing little areas to eat. BUT, you'll really only find beef and pork curries, pizza and of course variety of noodles...with beef pork or chicken.. If you eat a more vegetarian or vegan diet, extremely small selection of food. Also first time I've been to an area in Japan where tofu is practically non-existent. Could only find some in a small Lawson's convenience store, and even that was hard to come by. No restaurants off tofu anything. So if you're on a healthy plant based diet, I...

Some great terrain that gets absolutely obliterated by beginner snowboarders, but good news.... They stick to the same areas which means there's some great snow to be found elsewhere.

Also, after skiing smaller resorts all week and deciding the spend our last days riding here at an internationally renowned resort I was pretty shocked at the lack of facilities at both bases, with shocking amenities at both that were absolutely full of people.

Furano base the gondola was not open, that meant avoiding the area entirely unless you wanted to wait an hour for the ropeway. Couldn't see a reason for the gondola not to be open, same for on the other mountain, plenty of snow around. This meant that people were far more confined to an area which was a real shame.

Some great off piste terrain though, if you are a more advanced rider all the good lines weren't skied as this mountain is very much frequented by intermediates. This meant I got some great pillow lines towards the end of the day after getting my bearings, whereas in North America those lines would be skied first thing in the morning.

If all the lifts are open, you have yourself some fantastic terrain. If you've got a good nose for finding untracked snow, avoid the beginner snowboarders sideslipping fresh snow and filming it on their selfie sticks, then you'll...