There was 20cm of new snow overnight that fell with no winds. We had great conditions for skiing today and was one of those ’Hero Snow’ days. The winds remained calm for most of the day and we had good visibility up to the tree line.

We said farewell to the American lads and wish them well for the rest of their ski trip down south.

Every run we did today just got better and better. It started snowing around midday and by the time we were on our last run, it had snowed about 15-20cms of low density powder. Conditions were perfect, the falling snow coming down horizontally with very little wind.

Not even the pain of new boots could put the boys off continuing right until the end of the day.  Everyone was beaming smiles at the end and looking forward to tomorrow in what is shaping up to be a fantastic day.

We are hosting a group from Colorado who are on their first trip to Japan. They are happy to escape what is shaping up to be a very dry season in the continental States.

The fine weather continued in to today, so we took the opportunity to climb the local volcano. The area the volcano is located is in ‘Kamui Mintara’ meaning the ‘Playground of the Gods,’ to the local indigenous Ainu people. The gods  were certainly good to us today.

The previous storm snow is well consolidated now, so nothing in the way of deep face shots, but still great skiing all the same. The forecast is calling for snow from tomorrow, and as much as we have been enjoying the nice touring weather, we are also looking forward to the new carpet.

It's going to be a good day

It has been about 4 days since we last had snow, which is about the longest dry spell for the season. It was another blue-bird day here in Central Hokkaido and it has been great touring weather. It is always nice for us skiers to wake up to a half buried car, but spare a thought for all the none skiers out there.

The photo above was the start of a very big day in the Niseko area. It was one of the deeper days of the season. The video below shows footage from that day as well as video taken around Central Hokkaido. Can you notice the difference in the snow?

In Central Hokkaido, the powder tends to be lighter and drier, while the coast is a little heavier. The coast does get more snow though, and hey, the skiing still looks pretty darned  good as well. Who am I to complain!

It was forecasted to be a clear day today, so we had our hopes up to climb the local volcano. We woke in the morning to a fairly thick cloud cover, so we weren’t hopeful. It wasn’t long before it had burned off though and we could see the mountains on the other side of the valley, and the volcano smoke rising up in to the sky. We were good to go.

The last few days it had snowed without any wind, so the mountain was in a great condition for skiing. Soon we were skinning up in boot top snow and ascending the peak towards the volcano vents.

The ski and ride day was very special. We finished the day gazing at our ski lines from the hot spring.

We were in the backcountry today earning our turns and researching some new lines that we hadn’t skied before. We love this area in Central Hokkaido as the snow quality is always good here. Nice steep facing north shots that keep the snow light and dry for days.

The sun came out which has been a rarity this season. The winds were light, even on the peak, so it made for a great day out touring.

Since Google translate started, we have been seeing some great English signs around the ski areas. Some are easy to understand, while others are a little more difficult to decipher.  This one is from a ski area in Central Hokkaido and relates to having permission to ski the off-piste.

After reading it, we had images of powder frenzied skiers and snowboarders all trying in vain to carve their application in a block of wood. By the time they finish it, the powder has all been skied up.

We managed to get our application in on time, and had a good day to show for it.

This is a slide show of a tour we undertook. The weather wasn’t nice, but the turns were.

The snow this season has been relentless and we haven’t needed to go very far to get some quality turns. We thought that we would have a backcountry day on Mt Yotei for a change of pace. The mountain is the stunning volcano that you can see from Niseko.

Weather forecast was calling for snow all day, so not a peak day, but still plenty of great skiing below the trees. There were only 2 others on the mountain that day, and the turns were great.

We finished by warming ourselves up with a chicken curry and a hot-spring.

Some good turns as well

We conducted our first AST (Avalanche Skills Training) course for the season with 7 members on the course. It was good to see a spread of ages, from 18 to 63 years of age, with everyone having the same thing in common and that is skiing and riding in the backcountry, and off-piste out the ski area boundaries.

It snowed on both days of the course, adding to the huge amount of snow already. Finding some soft snow to bury beacons wasn’t difficult!

For more pictures of the day, click here