Joey

Ian

Gillian

This is the second day of our third Furano Off-piste week. We had a great day out at Tomamu with around 20cm of new snow overnight. On our first gondola ride we spotted only two other people on the mountain, so wondering whether the locals had a big night and the ski tourists were sleeping in? Not sure, but we pretty much had un-tracked turns the whole day.

Notice that we are wearing bibs. This is to show that we have signed a liability release with the ski area that we are skiing in the trees. We also had to wear helmets.

This is the video from the ‘Hokkaido 3 Volcanoes’ trip for this year. We managed to ski two of the volcanoes, but weren’t able to get to the third due to adverse weather conditions. We stayed at 2 hot-spring lodges in the mountains, one in the Niseko Range, and the other in the Daisetsuzan National Park. The hot springs were great and everyone enjoyed the soak after each of the ski days. We skied powder every day with superb conditions in Niseko, a little dry in Furano, but a great day on the last one.

Tim, enjoying the views

The last three days of the Three Volcanoes trip were cold. The temperatures rarely got above -20 degrees Celsius, and the wind chill made it even colder. We decided on some easy backcountry turns from the Furano Ski Resort rather than braving another cold day in the higher mountains of the national park. It was a good choice as it was a lot warmer down in the valley, and the turns were pretty good as well. A great finish to the trip.

There seems to be more people wearing head cameras these days. Most are mounted on the helmet, but there is a company called Gopro that had different attachments, on the wrist  and even a chest harness. Shane had a chest harness and caught some high-definition footage of himself skiing the lower part of Mt Yotei which is the big dormant volcano in Niseko.

Chest harness footage looks great because you have more of a feeling that it is yourself skiing, probably because you can see the skis out in front of you and the arms pole planting as well. So turn down the heat, put a fan on in front of you and make some skiing motions while watching this. This could be you.

This next segment gives a good insight to the type of skier with the camera. Shane used to race motorbikes and likes to ski the same way, fast! Watch as he passes two of the other skiers in the group, after the first person he chuckles as he goes fast, sorry, past. I was filming the group at one point and had to beckon him to “slow down” as it seemed he was coming straight for me. That segment won’t make any final cut as the camera starts to shake.

There was a meeting of some of the senior Japanese ski guides at the lodge we were staying in Niseko. The Japanese Mountain Guides Association has had a climbing guide qualification, but it seems will have a ski guide qualification as well, much like the Canadian and the New Zealand systems.

It was interesting to see the ski and snowboard equipment that they were using.  There was the old school and the new school. The old school were on regular shaped and cambered skis that were quite narrow.

old school

The younger guides were on wide skis with a rockered tip.

New school

One of the guides makes his own skis. They were quite light and had an interesting design.

Square tip

Wide underfoot

Tail

The snowboard guides were on a combination of split boards and snow-shoes. There was a Gentemstick which is hand-made in Niseko with the old Shimano step-in bindings which aren’t made anymore.

Gentem/Shimano

And then there was an interesting split-board set-up that had a combination of Dynafit bindings for climbing and plate bindings for the downhill ride. It was very heavy!

It was our last day in Niseko, and our last chance to ski Mt Yotei, also known as the ‘Fuji of the North.’ When we arrived at the access road we were unable to park the car because the graders were cleaning up the road. We asked the local farmer whether we could park in his car park and he was kind enough to let us. He probably always has backcountry skiers coming to his door-step when the graders do the road.

When we started out, it was snowing pretty hard

As we ascended the visibility improved

The winds were strong as we got higher though, so much so that Jim remarked that it sounded as though a 747 was landing on the summit. We decided on a lunch break in the lee of the wind where we had good views of the valley below.

We got as high as 1,420m and decided that it was the best place to descend. Great skiing, all the way down the 1,120 vertical meters.

The freezing level had risen a lot the previous day, and coupled with the solar radiation, any south-aspect or low elevation was out for good skiing. We rang the hot spring where we intended to ski in the morning and they said that there wasn’t much powder to be had. Where to go?

Temperatures have been slightly warmer than usual this season, possibly because it is an El Nino year.  It hasn’t affected the quantity or quality of the snow though.

We decided on an area closer to Sapporo where some of the  locals frequent. The start point is high with some nice northerly facing terrain. Anyway, we were rewarded with some very nice skiing and probably the best snow of the trip so far.

We climbed….

Then we skied…

Jim

Shane

Margie

Daniel

Tim

 Japanese often refer to powder as being ‘oishii’ or ‘delicious.’ Tim had yet to taste some of Hokkaido’s finest, so he went in for a taste.

Tasty?

   And was it delicious? It seemed that it was.

We had planned to ski Mt Yotei today, but the freezing level was forecasted to rise to 4 degrees, so we decided that some lift assisted turns would be the best option. Niseko has some easy accessed backcountry terrain or ’slackcountry’ as it is described. 

The ‘peak’ or ‘Annupuri Peak’ has become extremely popular and there were a lot of people hiking to it like a line of ants. Despite the large numbers there was still plenty of untracked terrain. From the top we had good views of the sea on one side and Mt Yotei on the other.

It was the first day of the ‘3 Volcanoes’ trip today. With us on the tour is Jim from Salt Lake City who has managed 20 days of skiing already. Also on the trip is Tim and Daniel from California and Margie, Shelley and Shane from Melbourne.

Jim’s back was delayed through customs in the States so had to rent a pair of pants and a set of skis for the day. He rented some Vector Glides, made by the Japanese ski manufacturer ‘Ogasaka,’ who have been making skis for 90 years. The logo looks a lot like the Black Diamond logo, so we are not sure who came up with it first.

Black Diamond?

A great way to start with 20cm of new snow overnight, and anyone who was feeling the effects of jet-lag, soon shook it off with a few turns in the powder. We made the most of some easy side-country turns, before heading to the boundary to earn some on 2 of the mountains in the Niseko Range.

On our return there was the smell of sulfur in the air as we skied past the bubbling volcanic hot pools. I have previously seen ducklings swimming  in these hot pools and enjoying the warmth of the warm water. No ’snow monkeys’ in Hokkaido, but we have ’sulfur ducklings.’

With recent strong winds and minimal snowfall, we weren’t expecting an epic day out. 

It had taken 7 hours to drive from Furano, the center of Hokkaido, over to Niseko, which is only about a distance of 150km. Speed limits on the open roads are only 50km/hour and it didn’t help that the freeway was closed due to the winds. Along one section, the police were diverting traffic as a building fire raged. Such was the heat that it produced, that it seemed to penetrate inside the car.

The temperature had been above 0 degrees since 6pm the previous night, and it still hovered at around 2 degrees this morning and there was rain and sleet on the wind-shield driving out.

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with some pretty good skiing. Sometimes it helps in Hokkaido to go out with low expectations, as snow conditions are generally always good.  Strong winds and low visibility kept us on the lower flanks of the mountain. Here are some highlights of the day.