Furanodake’s juicy lines

All green!

A nice line in winter

Leech on my eyebrow!

Season 08/09 was an interesting one as we had a few warm spells during the month of January.  In the Furano area this meant that there was less snow at the lowder elevations, but a lot more than usual up high. 

Today I was hiking in the Tokachidake Area of Daisetsuzan National Park and there was still quite a lot of snow around, especially in the shaded areas and gullies where meters build up over the course of the winter.  I did see one ski line, which must have been made not that long ago at all.  I did manage a few turns in my hiking boots!

For many skiers who only see Hokkaido’s mountains during the winter time, I thought you would be interested to see what the mountains look like in summer.

Yesterday we were looking at the mountains, but today we were in them, in what will be the last day of skiing for the season.  We were in the Tokachidake area of Daisetsuzan National Park and climbed Mt Tokachi, which, at just a shade over 2,000 meters is the highest mountain in the area. 

Mt Tokachi is a live volcano and on the climb there are reminders of this, with numerous electric trip wires down the mountain.  There are also 3 live web-cameras parked on the peak to forewarn of any eruption.  It is one of the more active volcanoes in Hokkaido, erupting at least once every 30 or 40 years.  The last time it blew its top was in 1988, so I guess we are safe for a few more years.  There was a ski resort at that time, but was abandoned soon after that. 

The biggest eruption was in 1928 and the town located closest to it had to be evacuated for year.  The lava flow ran for kilometers.  The trees that regenerated after that were birch and there are now beautiful birch forests at the lower elevations.

Of the 29 national parks in Japan, apparently more than half of them have active volcanoes and by region, Hokkaido has the most active. 

I was with a local crew today.  All very good skiers.  One of the guys could telemark backwards!  Another guy skied in plastic climbing boots with a home made tongue stiffener which he attached to his boots at the top of the climb.  If you have every tried to ski in plastics, it is very difficult to stay out of the back seat, but he did a great job, getting down the hill as if he was in proper ski boots!

I have been lucky to ski in a few different countries and guided people from around the world.  There is one thing which we all seem to agree on and that the powder here in Hokkaido is some of the lightest around.  I guess Utah has some pretty good days, but another great thing about this island is the dependable snowfall. 

We were host to Mountain Tracks this year.  It was their first trip to Japan, led by Nick Parks who has skied many different places.  Anyway, find out what he said here on the PlanetSki news site about where his best ski day was this season; http://www.planetski.eu/news/333

 

 

Camilla obviously didn’t like the driver.  I wonder if the bus driver’s sunglasses were mirrored?  We guided the crew for a few days when they were in Central Hokkaido earlier this year. Camilla gives a good insight in to the cultural quirks and the joys of riding powder in Japan.  If you want to read the full story, please find it on our media page.  You will need to zoom in to see the small writing.  http://www.hokkaidopowderguides.com/media.html

The guys from Sweetgrass Productions are headed to Hokkaido and will be here for the whole season to capture the Hokkaido backcountry powder skiing culture.  They have asked us to guide them for one or two days in early January.  By the look of their latest offering of backcountry skiing in North America, I am looking forward to what they can produce in Hokkaido.  Here is an exerpt from their website and a clip of their latest movie ‘Hand Cut.’

“From the hand-fired railroad days in Revelstoke to the miners of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, Hand Cut blends old-timer wisdom with self-propelled, big mountain, lines from Alaska, British Columbia, and Colorado.

The Hand Cut release includes endless pillow lines in the BC interior; exposed descents in the Coast Range with ski mountaineering legend John Chilton; brilliantly shot inverts over the old wood mines on Red Mountain Pass, Colorado; and the original deep-country blues of John-Alex Mason. Hand Cut: self-propelled stories brought to life in High Definition and brilliant 16mm film. “

what is ‘danchi?’  Here is the Wikipedia translation;

Danchi (団地, Danchi^?) is the Japanese word (literally ‘group land’) for a large cluster of apartment buildings. The Japan Housing Corporation, now called UR or Urban Renaissance Agency, was founded in 1955. During the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, the UR built many such low-rent apartment complexes in the outskirts of urban areas to offset the housing demand of the then-increasing Japanese population. ^[1] Fewer and fewer Japanese live in the gradually aging danchi.

This is a movie of a group of pro-riders led by Niel Hartman who use their vehicles to road-trip around Hokkaido to get the goods.  I often see them when I arrive early in the morning at a ski area or a car park that accesses backcountry terrain.  Often they are just getting up and rubbing the sleep from their eyes.  Once, I was guiding a client deep in our backcountry terrain and they appeared from out of the mist and were gone just as quickly, like spirits in the mountains.  I managed to get a shot of Yama chan’s frozen beard before they disappeared though.

Here is their latest offering;

Last season we paid an expensive price to a sign maker for a sign which I thought I could have made myself.  Anyway, this year I thought I would do just that.

half way there

Done!

‘What blood type are you?’ is a common question that I get asked here in Japan.  Most westerners don’t have a clue, myself included, but most Japanese seem to know.  My wife even seems to know my blood type, based purely on my personality!  ‘O’ apparently!

Read this story to find out more about the subject.

http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia29/en/wonders/index.html

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Here are some pictures of the Furano area from the last week.  We saw the opening of the ski area with already an 80cm snow base. 

Opening day on Furano Resort and already great powderand then it started to snow

 

 

 

and then it started to snow

and snow

and then it cleared

and then we cleared

We have started plotting the weather for this season already.  It gives us an indication as to what is going on with the snowpack, particularly how the weather is contributing to stability or instability.  From direct weather effects on the snowpack we can get an idea what is going on with the snow surface.  There are 4 of these;

Wind can transport a large amount of snow which results in rapid loading of the snowpack.  It can change the shape of snow grains and increase slab density.

Temperature and Sun changes the settlement and creep rate of the upper snowpack.

Rain or snow adds weight and therefore stress on any buried weak layer in the snowpack.

We have not been out skiing just yet, but when we do we will have some knowledge of the snowpack already through our weather chart.