Very suitable for family skiing. We stayed in Crowne Plaza, and the ski-in-ski-out is very convenient.
The ski season can last till nearly May, and the snow conditions are very very good. Restaurants are easy to access and can reserve online first.
There are many different terrains to ski, such as tree run, snow cat, kicker, park and others. Suitable for different levels of skiers.
I visited it twice in two years. The trails are well designed, as a snowboarder, I enjoyed it. We were lucky enough to enjoy the powder snow most of the time. There r trails for beginner and advanced, ungroomed trails r fun. There r tree runs for those who r interested too.
The trails are great. Great snow, we'll groomed.
The staff are not very good. The gondola line will wrapping around in a U shape with a 20 minute wait, meanwhile the staff are allowing groups of 3 to take an entire carriage that can fit 8 people even though the signs there say to fit at least 6.
The bus situation is a mess if you're trying to stay in Morioka so you dont have to pay a small fortune for the on site lodging. Even though I'm sure it's a common occurrence, apparently the bus company can't fathom more than 2 busses of people trying to get to the ski resort. They didnt have any sort of standby system for extra people. When not everyone fit on the 2 7:40 am busses we had to wait for another bus that didn't leave until 8:30 am which is 50 minutes. Pretty bad considering their scheduling is terrible and even the 7:40 am bus arrives 30 minutes after the ski lifts open. And the 8:30 am bus didnt even fit everyone so we had to wait for another bus. So despite being 15 minutes early for the earliest bus I didnt get to the resort until 100 minutes after the lifts opened.
Our coach Max Northey really did an excellent job coaching my daughter and I on the ski lessons. Very detail oriented and patient. Excellent job!
Really enjoyed our time at Appi. The snow was massive for Christmas (seems to be a common theme here in Japan) and it basically never stopped snowing the 3 days we were there. We stayed off resort so it was reasonable and shuttles ran frequently through the quaint snow covered “town.” Don’t expect too much night life here, it’s about families and powder. Runs were nice but really cater to beginner and intermediates. We brought our own skis this time as rentals run the same price as lift tickets and sizes max out at a quite small 170cm (this has been consistent in Japan as well). They have cat skiing but it runs quite pricy at about $200 USD per day, so that was a pass. Knocked off one star because they have lots of trees but no tree skiing. The trees are very dense, but could be opened up in the off season at the resort’s discretion. As such, in combination with the lack of much of a steep pitch, there were very limited options for advanced skiers. Please open those trees! Limited wait on lifts given the holidays, but you should never see 1 or 2 people on a quad with folks waiting.
