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;