International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) 2023 Myoko Japan Trip Report

[Mattadvproject]

I wasn't originally planning on posting about this trip (live at least), but it's off-season and I have a little time to spare, so what the heck. It was an interesting time in Myoko (region near Nagano on the main island of Honshu in Japan). This was a brand new area for me, I had not been there before so the idea was to get out there and explore. Thankfully most of the group was into that and after a lot of time spent researching, I had a list of 10 resorts within 1 hour at a potential base in Akakura Onsen. There were other places to stay, but Akakura Onsen seemed to be the best base but it was a major challenge finding accommodation for our group of 7 people. For the first time on one of our trips to Japan, we were able to just stay in one place and not move hotels, so that was a nice change.

Akakura Onsen was the most central location but the hotel options were not great as I mentioned before. There's quite a few hotels but so many of them were run down or if it had been renovated, prohibitively expensive. There was also a major language barrier and a lot of the hotels didn't have the ability to converse in English, so I ended up working with a tourism agency with Australian staff to source our accommodation. I had told the group ahead of time that the accommodation wasn't going to be very nice but it had a good location. That turned out to be true. We could at least walk to all the restaurants at night and there was a decent enough variety of those, but it was quite busy and you needed to have reservations wherever you went. Once we figured that out, then we were able to book tables in advance and it got a little easier.

Anyway, we'll get into all of that and here's a rundown of what happened...... We'll kick off in Tokyo where we had 2 nights to meet up and explore a little before jumping on the bullet train to Myoko.....

 

[Mattadvproject]

Feb 14th - Tokyo

I had finished up with my last group on the 12th February. I took the train from Morioka down to Tokyo and then had booked a hotel near Tokyo Station for 3 nights. There's plenty of hotel options in that area and you can find a nice place for $100 per night. The group arrived on the 13th in the afternoon and evening and then we had a full day to enjoy the city on the 14th.

I had a friend who lives in Tokyo, show us around. My good friend Akane was an old ski instructor friend that I used to work with back in Mt. Hotham during the early 2000's. We kept in touch all these years and I'd also met Akane back in 2016 when I went to Japan for the first time. It was great to see her again and it had been 7 years since our last meeting. She hadn't changed at all. We didn't have a set plan on where we were going to go, we just played it by ear and people could choose what kind of things they wanted to see.

We had a lovely day exploring the city and using the underground railway to get around quickly. The metro can be pretty confusing but with Akane leading the way, it was very easy. We started off at the Imperial Palace, then the electronics district in Akihabara (my favorite!), then to the ski shop area of Kanda-Ogawamachi and a bunch of different areas that I don't remember the names of, for food and shopping. It was a big day. Here's the photos so you can see what it looked like.


Arriving at Tokyo Station on the 12th Feb, en-route to the hotel. I had used the Yamato/Blackcat service to ship my ski bag from Tohoku to Myoko, so I only had my backpack and roller suitcase to deal with on the Shinkansen (bullet train) which makes life so much easier.


The Tokyo Police Museum was near the hotel.


Looking for a spot for lunch on the 13th. Wondering the back alleys.....


One for @Drahtguy Kevin we found somewhere that had Tacos!


Nice little craft brewery near our hotel.


Sushi train at Tokyo Station.


Love me a good sushi train, which is ironic as I don't like sushi! There's plenty of cooked foods that you can order so I'm happy. It was a ridiculous 28 degrees celcius inside which was crazy! I was a little worried about being in a sushi joint that was so hot!


I think this was the Tokyo Convention Center but I could be wrong. It was a shortcut we took on the way to the Imperial Palace.


Tokyo Imperial Palace grounds.


My favorite, the electronics district at Akihabara. So much to see and so vibrant.


We visited quite a few ski shops at the Kanda-Ogawamachi district. This one had an impressive array of mogul skis!



Dinner time


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- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

February 15th - Travel to Myoko

This was a pure travel day and our mission was to take the Shinkansen to our base in Akakura Onsen. To do that, we needed to ride the train all the way to the Joetsu-Myoko Station where we would pick up the rental van from Nippon Rent-A-Car and then drive back down to AO. You can purchase train tickets online now and then pick them up at Tokyo Station. It can be a little finicky using the system, but it is in English and somewhat self-explanatory. Some of the guys had trouble using their credit cards but after trying different ones, everyone was able to get a reservation.

I booked a Green Class ticket (kind of like business class) and the fare was just over $150 for the 2.5-hour ride to JM. You have better luggage storage in Green Class with large, continuous overhead storage bins (which can fit a ski bag) and then storage behind the last row of seats, plus racks inbetween cabins. We made sure to book the last rows so we could use the behind the seats storage, then it was much easier.

It was only a 12-minute walk to the station but the challenge began trying to find the correct ticket office. We tried a couple of (wrong) offices, but finally find the JR East ticket office. Then if you have the QR code from your online reservation, you can scan it at the machine and then receive your ticket and reservation. Then you head downstairs to find the correct track. That was definitely easier than finding the ticket office! We made sure we had at least 1 hour to make it onto the train and the extra time came in handy so we were never in a rush.

We made it down to the correct track and then found the correct car number for Green Class. It wasn't a full car but we were first in line so we had a little more time to get our luggage onboard. It was quite nice and luxurious inside with nice, comfortable, wide seats that could recline pretty far. I settled in for the ride. It was quite warm when we left but after about an hour, we started to get into the mountains, but I was still not seeing a huge amount of snow. We had a few stops and then came to Nagano (we were going further) and it was till pretty warm and not much snow. Ruh roh.....

We took off again and then went through a long tunnel and when we came out on the other side, it was absolutely dumping! This was more like it! Ours was the next stop and we got off and headed out through the station. The rental car office was just across the road and I went over to pick up the van. Then it was about a 30-minute drive to get to the hotel at Akakura Onsen. We started on the Expressway and the going was good despite the snow and lack of visibility.

We took the exit and then the sat nav decided we had had it too easy and took us onto a little backroad. Pretty quickly the road was getting really snowy and going uphill the van was struggling, even with snow tires and AWD. After a while, we got stuck and had to dig out. I turned us around and we went back downhill and finally found a bigger road that was more plowed. We made it through the town and then up to our hotel (Akakura Hotel Annex).

The hotel was quite the experience..... it was very dated, something out of the 70's or 80's and plenty of misplaced decor. The gentleman at reception did speak a little English and was very friendly and he showed us to our rooms. I had to duck a few times to avoid hitting my head on some of the low beams. The rooms were warm and quite spacious (apart from the bathroom which was a tiny, capsule-style bathroom that I could barely fit into), but really old. I could imagine that if you renovated this hotel, you could have something truly special. It did have 4 or 5 different onsen, so that was nice.

We found an inexpensive restaurant that night for dinner that didn't require a reservation and had a ticket machine for purchasing food. We noticed quite a few Australians both at the restaurant and around the town. I had heard that this area was popular with the Aussies and this was definitely proving to be true. We had an early night in preparation for the first days skiing.


The train to take us past Nagano and up to Joetsu-Myoko station.


- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

February 16th - Akakura Onsen and Akakura Kanko

Alrighty, our first day on snow and we were excited! There had been a lot of snow the day before and we were excited to ski some powder. The challenge would be finding the good stuff but normally in Japan, it's not too hard to find if you have a good sense for it. We'd also want to find out what their policies were towards tree skiing and off-piste. I knew that there were two ski areas next to each other and that you could buy a joint lift ticket.

Looking at the trail map, the steeper terrain seemed to be on the Kanko side and we were on the Onsen side so we'd have to take a few lifts to get across. Thankfully some of the main lifts were right opposite the hotel after only a 3 minute walk. There was a ski shop and we were able to buy the joint area all day passes. Price was probably around $50 or so. We took a couple of high speed lifts up higher and straight away we could see plenty of fresh snow and the top of the mountain peeking out. There looked like a big mountain up there. I'm sure the ski touring is excellent.

We made it across to the upper Kanko lifts and there was a high-speed quad with bubble taking us up high. We could definitely see ropes and warning signs up about not skiing in closed areas. When we got to the top, there was a gate with a beacon checker on it. There was a marked run right next to it so that was an easy start. We went through the gate (everyone had a beacon on) and into the trees. Surprisingly they were untouched so we dropped in for a quick lap. The snow was about boot-top deep and the skiing fun and easy as the trees were pretty open. That brought us back to the same lift.

We did several laps in that area, cutting left a little more each time and getting fresh tracks. It was fun skiing. Eventually we would end up on a cat track and then we had a little skate to get back to the lift. After that, we decided to go explore further down the mountain but it was very mellow and you needed some speed to keep your momentum up in the deep powder and low angle terrain. We decided to head up higher again. This time we found a new zone and after a bit of a traverse, we went into a sidecountry area with knee deep snow and some steeper lines. This was really fun skiing and we got quite a few faceshots. The line ended in a traverse along a narrow track and then we came out to a tunnel! The tunnel had snow in it and we could ski through it and up a steep embankment on the other side. That brought us back to the ski area and we could head back for more laps.

It was a decently-sized zone, with steeper zones and spines closer to the tunnel. We worked hard to put in a sidestep track (we should have put skins on in hindsight) and that gave us easier access. We got 3 awesome laps in. They weren't long lines, but the quality was high. It was steep and very deep (probably about knee deep) and we were getting faceshots on most turns. We finished back at the tunnel each time and it was relatively easy to lap. After that we were done for the day and then we had a long ski to get back to the Onsen side. Trying to find our starting point was a little difficult but after a while, we found where we needed to be and were able to make the short walk back to the hotel.

A great start to the trip! Here's some images......


Akakura Kanko and Akakura Onsen ski areas


The mountain playing hide and seek with us. There is some nice looking terrain up there!


Heading up higher to some steeper terrain on the Kanko side


First lot of trees were really nice


Plenty of pow


Our exit from the second zone where we found the really good stuff!


The closer to the tunnel, the steeper it got.


Pitted!





Steep and deep!


I think this was Gordon, mid-somersault





What a zone!























Nice spot for dinner. One of the better hotels in the area as it was renovated, so rooms were pricey!


I'll post some video next......


- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

A little video of the skiing for that day......




- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

February 17th - Charmant Hiuchi

It didn't snow that night but we were still hopeful to ski some powder, given the amazing day we'd had the day before. I had suggested we try the resort of Charmant Hiuchi, about 1 hour 20 minutes away from Akakura and the furthest resort away in our zone (our goal was to try as many of the 10 resorts that I had researched, as possible). From the research that I had done, it seemed to be the most under the radar place I could find, so I thought it might be a good option. I knew it had decent vertical (508m) and 1 high-speed quad and a couple of double chairs.

It was a bluebird day and we took the expressway north until we hit the ocean and then turned west. After a short drive along the coast we looped back around to the south and headed back into the mountains. It wasn't long until we started to see some seriously impressive views, the mountains were stunning. We went up several switchbacks and then could see the resort. We could see the main quad chair, a decent-sized baselodge and decent terrain, very open with only a few trees and a couple of groomers. Most of it was ungroomed but unfortunately it was tracked up pretty good.

Oh well, I'm sure we could find something if we poked around..... We walked through the baselodge and then found the ticket office outside. I think a full-day ticket was around $40. We were the only Westerners that I could see and it was pretty quiet. The chair was pretty fast and took us up to the top in a few minutes. At the top we saw another lodge and a ski patrol shack. There seemed to be a track going around the back of the building so we went for a quick walk. When we came around the corner, our jaws dropped at the absolutely stunning view of massive mountains behind. There was an active volcano with a little plume of smoke coming out of it. We could see ample backcountry zones and a few tracks. Looks like people were into some ski touring! This was one of the most impressive views I have seen from a ski area, we had no idea we were going to see this!

Time for a ski and to figure out where to find the snow. I think we did a quick lap inbounds and confirmed that it wasn't going to be super fun skiing, we'd want to look outside the resort for better snow. On the next lap, we found the boundary on the left side, it wasn't roped and there didn't seem to be any signs, so we dropped into the trees. There were a few tracks but of we stayed high, close to the ski area boundary, then we found some untouched lines. Lovely stuff! Snow quality was good, about 20cm's of settled snow that was dry due to the north-facing aspect.

Eventually we came to a traverse line back towards the resort. Given it was our first time in that zone, I felt it smart to take it back in, to get our bearings and not get too far out our first lap. The first lap was always going to be conservative to get everything mapped (I was tracking the run using Gaia Maps) and to know our entry/exit points. As we got closer to the boundary, we saw a couple of skiers arrive at our exit point. We stopped and they didn't move. Then I saw the uniforms, it was patrol. Hmmm, that was a bit of a worry, I didn't think we had done anything wrong but they were definitely waiting for us. Time to go see what was up......

They started talking in Japanese. I didn't know what they were saying but then they started making the X symbol. I pulled out my phone and fired up the good old Google gaijin translate. I apologized for any wrongdoing and asked them if we had done something wrong. They didn't seem too angry, but it would be good to find out if there was a problem so we could keep skiing. It was a long slow conversation, but it turns out they didn't mind us skiing outside the ski area, especially as we had backcountry gear, but we needed to fill out some paperwork and file a backcountry touring plan. No problem! We just needed to go back up to the ski patrol shack at the top of the lift and register.

We cycled back around and I went into the patrol shack. They were expecting us. The form included contact information and then a map of where we wanted to go. I marked off terrain that was in a zone above the resort and they said we could come back into the resort via a bridge much lower down. We could see most of it from the top of the resort and I could see a skin track already put in. So, off we went.

We had a lovely tour up on an existing track, through snow-clad birch. The higher we got, the better the views. The trees were all north-facing, so the snow was staying cold, even though it was pretty warm. We skinned for about 1.5 hours and then came to a steeper, open face and we decided that would be our drop-in point. We had some really nice turns and then had some lower angle turns through the trees. We had to keep staying right as the fall-line wanted to pull us left and into some drainage's. It flowed pretty well, with just one section where we had to do a decent sidestep to avoid a deep gully. We ended up at the same exit point we had hit before. We could see the bridge down lower but decided we'd take the easy out. Then we had a nice long lunch.

The guys were pretty spent so we didn't head back out for more. All in all, it had been a fun and adventurous day, with the highlight being the amazing scenery and lovely ski tour, plus making friends with the patrol. We had the somewhat long drive back and then headed into town for dinner. The forecast was worrying. There was no snow forecast for the next day but then a massive storm was coming in and it was forecast for torrential rain. Oh no! Anyway, more of that later, here's what the day looked like.....


Lovely views as we drove up to the resort


One high-speed quad is all you need to access all this great terrain. It was a shame it was all tracked up but I can definitely see the potential.


Stunning backcountry!





Top restaurant and patrol shack where we signed out to go into the backcountry


Spot the UFO! Osprey V-22 fly by.


Recent avalanche activity, we were going to ski a different aspect and more mellow terrain.


About to start the ski down. Our transition point.


Awesome skiing down this open face.











I'd like to ski that and that and that and that....


Checking out the potential of this zone. Definitely avalanche terrain in there! The active volcano is in the upper right of the photo.


- Matt

 

[my07mcx2]

Granby ski tour outfitter takes special trip to Kyrgyzstan

Matt Appleford, the founder of The Adventure Project, lives in Granby but spends plenty of time traveling around the world. His company takes skiers and snowboarders to places like Japan, India, Georgia and Chile in...

www.skyhinews.com

 

[Mattadvproject]

Granby ski tour outfitter takes special trip to Kyrgyzstan

Matt Appleford, the founder of The Adventure Project, lives in Granby but spends plenty of time traveling around the world. His company takes skiers and snowboarders to places like Japan, India, Georgia and Chile in...

www.skyhinews.com

Ha ha, guilty as charged..... that was me and my trip to Kyrgyzstan, thanks for sharing. I think it came out quite well, the photos really stood out and the write-up was nice also. I am very grateful that they went with the story....

 

[Mattadvproject]

A little footage of the sidecountry and then backcountry areas, that we skied in Charmant Huichi. Unfortunately you don't get to see that amazing view in the video's that we had been seeing, but it was there on the skin up and when we went for a little look behind the upper lodge/restaurant.

We deliberately looked for mellow terrain so nothing here is steep, that we skied. It was a challenge at times to find a flowing line when we did our backcountry tour line and there were a couple of spots where we had to do a little sidestep or a couple of pushes. Given how warm it was, the snow did stay pretty cold so the skiing was nice. I'm sure the previous powder day on the 16th would have been epic, but no worries, we'd had plenty of amazing turns in Akakura (without the drive).

This would be a great place to visit again....... Anyway, here's a little look at the skiing from the 17th Feb.




- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

February 18th - Tangram Ski Circus/Madarao Kogen

After the temps had been so warm the previous day, the potential for decent powder skiing was low. If we were going to have any luck, then we'd need to find somewhere north-facing. Looking at the maps, then Tangram and Madarao were the best-looking options. It was only a 23-minute drive and we could buy a combined ticket for both areas for around $45. The guys were keen to keep exploring, so we jumped in the van and I drove us to the resort. It was a Saturday and the carparks at Tangram were very busy. We had a 10-minute walk to get to the main base lodge and then about a 15-minute queue for the lift tickets.

Madarao or Madapow is well-known among Western powderhounds for the massive amounts of powder they get and their liberal policy towards tree-skiing. I hadn't found much information about Tangram though, but I was excited by the prospect of being able to explore two resorts on the one ticket. We could see most of the terrain at Tangram from the base lodge and there were some nice-looking trees. We took a few lift rides to higher elevations and on the way up, scoped out the powder potential. We saw a few open areas where Japanese skiers and boarders were coming down, but it was all pretty tracked out.

We didn't want to waste any time so we headed over to the Madaro side to see if it was better there. Here we knew that nearly all the trees were going to be in play. Unfortunately everything was also pretty tracked. We had a bit of a ski around and the powder was getting heavy, but we had the lay of the land and Madarao was pretty decent in size. I had scoped out an interesting looking sidecountry line to the far looker's left of the area on Google Earth and we went for a recce to look at the exit. Sure enough there was nice looking trees and a few tracks coming out. A couple of the guys weren't into it given that the powder wasn't great, but Gary and myself were up for an adventure.

We had to go back up to the summit and I had seen the ridgeline going up from behind the lift. We'd seen snowshoers going up the ridge and no one had hassled them, so it had to be legal. We went for it. I kept the skis on as we got to the ridge and did a quick sidestep/herringbone and I was past the top lift shack pretty quickly. Gary tried to walk it but kept punching through so eventually he put his skis back on. I could be easily seen but no one yelled at me so I kept going. The ridge curved around and eventually straightened. There was a shallow boot-pack and it wasn't too long, so no need to put the skins on. I took my jacket and helmet off and strapped the skis to my pack. It took about 15-minutes to reach the summit and it was a little tough as I punched through several times. The trees we wanted to ski were to our left and we could see a few untouched lines. This was probably our best chance of decent skiing for the day, so we decided this would be our line and traversing even further across should yield even better turns.

We were in no rush. A couple of Japanese snowboarders came up the ridge and they said hello to us as we slowly got our gear ready at the drop in point. I think they were a little surprised to see us. They said this was going to be their second run. Then a big group of snowshoers came up from a different direction. It was quite the party. Anyway, everyone was friendly, we didn't feel out of place. Then we put the skis on and traversed to our right. We didn't want to go too far as were were losing altitude and changing onto a warmer aspect as we wrapped around, so finally we dropped in. I had an untouched line at the start and it was heavy but bouncy powder. We had two decent pitches and then we decided we needed to start cutting back left to the resort. It's better to be too high, then too low in these circumstances. As we got lower in the traverse, the snow got increasingly wetter and eventually there were places it was so sticky you would almost come to a stop. That wasn't so fun....

Finally we made it around to the resort and we popped out of the trees. We were near a lower trail that would be our traverse out. It was a little lower than what we were hoping for and had to push and skate in a few spots, but on the skis it wasn't too bad. We made it back to the lower lifts and then looked for a place for lunch. We came across a on-mountain restaurant but it was all burgers and Western food, so we turned around and went to find somewhere else. I got a message from the other guys that they were back on the Tangram side having lunch in the base area, so we jumped on the lifts to try and get back to them. We got a little lost and it took a few goes to get onto the right lift to take us up high enough onto the connecting ridgeline. We skied an ungroomed run that had moguls on it and that was fun with fat skis, touring boots and heavy packs on!

We made it to the baselodge and it took us a while to find the right restaurant they were in, but then we had a nice lunch with an all you can drink soft drink option. That was pretty good. No one was psyched to ski anymore so we called it quits around 300pm and then headed back to Akakura and our hotel. A massive storm was due to hit but it was forecast for heavy, heavy rain for a few days before it was then calling for a huge dump of snow. Things were about to get interesting......



Gotta love a good old Japanese pizza box chair! I think we rode it just for the sake of riding it as you don't always get to ride them. You can keep your pack on at least and sit comfortably, but getting on is always sketchy as they are often really low to the ground.



We didn't have good snow but at least we had good views. Dave and Gordon on their Kastle BMX 115's taking it all in. We could see the potential, it would be great tree skiing in good powder.



Gary and I going on our little adventure into the sidecountry. We climbed up the ridge behind, but the trees to the left is where the fun is. Plenty of good lines in there.



The trees we skied after our hike up the ridge and into the sidecountry. This was the first of two decent pitches, Gary making some nice turns.


I'll post a quick video of the sidecountry turns we had when I've edited it, but it's not super inspiring to watch..... Stay tuned though as there is some really good stuff coming up in a few posts time though.....


- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

So this is what the skiing looked like in the trees after we did the hike at Myoko Kogen. It was a great zone; if we had been there with pristine powder it would have been amazing, sadly the weather gods just weren't cooperating this day and it was wet and heavy snow. It was great to explore the two resorts and see the potential, it's definitely there, it's just a shame the powder was pretty heavy when we skied it, but at least we go a decent workout in and had fun exploring.

Unfortunately after that, the weather went completely nuts. We had a couple of days with torrential rain before it got colder and it absolutely nuked on us. That's all coming up! Stay tuned......

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

February 19th - 20th - Down Days

And then the weather went crazy. On the evening of the 18th, it started to rain and it was torrential. It rained all day through the 19th. Some of the group decided they wanted to hit the road to Nagano, some wanted to stay in the hotel and some wanted to do some driving and exploration. I took Dave on a little drive around the backroads of Myoko. We circumnavigated Lake Nojiri and stopped in a few pretty spots to take photos. It was raining hard but it was nice to stop and see some different places.

We passed the Myoko train station and just behind it, we had seen the remains of an old abandoned ski area so we decided to go take a look. This was the old Myoko Panorama area and we could see some abandoned lift stations and several runs. There was an old abandoned hotel building as well and it looked like something out of a zombie movie. If you want to know about the resort, then take a look at this page on Snow Japan - https://www.snowjapanhistory.com/niigata-myoko-myoko-panorama-park.

We drove down some increasingly narrow sidestreets and I thought we might get stuck, but we came across a really cool looking restored cat with a cab on the back and double ski boxes on the roof. I wasn't sure if this was a private cat or a commercial cat. Perhaps someone was running some cat tours up on the old abandoned ski area? Maybe, but it wasn't an option for us given the weather, so we gave up trying to find out more.....

We regrouped for dinner with some of the others and went out into Akakura Onsen for dinner. The streets were torrents of water..... this was not looking good!

On the 19th, it finally started to get a bit colder and we had a little snow. It was just a dusting in Akakura Onsen. Some of the guys wanted to go skiing so I suggested we check out Myoko Suginohara which had the highest lift and biggest vertical in the area. If anywhere had survived the rains and gotten the most snow, then it could be there. Unfortunately, when we got there and got up high, it was just dust on crust. They had lost 30cm's of snow depth during the rain, but it the little bit of snow didn't do much to help.

They may have had more snow, but it could have been blown away as it was very windy up high. Again there was good potential, with a decently steep runs and plenty of trees that would be great with good snow, but this wasn't that day. We had lunch and then just for a laugh, we went and skied the longest run in Japan, but it was mostly blues and greens and groomed. That was us for the day.

We got back to Akakura and then in the evening, it started to snow properly. It was wet at first, but then the temps started to drop and it got drier and drier. When we walked home from dinner, it was nuking, some of the heaviest snow I have ever seen. Our van (parked outside the hotel) was getting buried. Wow, finally, things we looking up! Where would we ski the next day and where would be open? That was the question.....


Views of a ski area from Lake Nojiri, not sure what ski area that is, maybe Seki Onsen?








Abandoned hotel in front of the old Myoko Panorama resort


The snowcat we found at the bottom of the abandoned ski area. It was definitely being used, most likely at the ski area.


The runs are still wide open, would be a fun place to ski tour.


One of the old ski lift terminals.....


And there's hope! The van getting buried on the evening of the 20th Feb. Finally we would get to ski some pow!


Good times were ahead of us. Time to ski some more powder! More to come.....

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

21st Feb - Best powder day for the entire season!

Finally it happened. After all the rain and only a slight flurry during the day on the 20th Feb, the big storm had delivered! And it had delivered big time. We awoke to find sveral feet of new snow. The van was completely buried and the roads were inundated. A great problem to have. So, we realized it was going to be a deep day, but the next question was, where would we go? The roads could be difficult and we didn't know which areas would be able to open terrain, so we didn't want to get stuck or go to a place where there would be no terrain accessible. It was always going to be a roll of the dice and as much fun as it would have been to go somewhere new, we decided to play it safe and stay at Akakura Onsen/Kanko area. At least we wouldn't get stuck trying to get there.

I felt wherever we went, we would need to be patient. Who knew how long it would take to get things open. At least at Akakura, we knew where to roughly go. The best terrain we had found over at the Kanko side at the two upper lifts. I wasn't optimistic that we would be able to ski anything too steep, like the sidecountry area with the tunnel exit that we had enjoyed the first day, but there were other things we could get to that would be decent. What lifts would be open, was the major question.

We were out early and took the short walk to the trail down to the bottom lift. We were second in line behind some guys from the UK. We had a nice chat with them as we waited in line. Gradually the crowd grew behind us. After a bit of a wait, we loaded the lift and up we went. There was a lot of new snow and it was still snowing hard. We got to the top of the quad chair in the Kumado Gelande area and then headed left to the Akakura Kanko side. There is an open flat area that you have to skate across to get to the other side and on our way over, we could see that the access trail to the other side was closed. Oh no! That was definitely where needed to go to get into the fun stuff.

We decided to wait for a while to see if the trail would open. We met a nice young Aussie guy who was working in Myoko and he said that was really the only option but he didn't know how long it would take to get the access trail/lift open. We kept waiting and finally we were all getting a little cold, so we went for a little ski. There was one trail that had a slight amount of pitch to it and that was where everyone was heading. We looped around and came back to the same spot. Looking down the trail, it was still closed. We decided to go seek shelter in one of the restaurants back at the upper flat spot (upper Yodel Gelande area). The Aussie guy came with us and we had a nice chat. We were able to dry off a little and get warmed up. After about 30 minutes, we decided to take another look.

This time, we headed down for a closer look and on the way, we saw the UK guys we had been chatting to and they were waiting next to the little triple chair to the right of the ski jumps. They beckoned us over and said they were told this lift would be opening soon. They were first in line so we took our skis off and got in line behind them. Might as well wait here as this lift accessed some short but steep terrain. Most people were bypassing this lift so it was still quiet. I took the opportunity to go dig a quick pit and do a compression test to look at bonding of the new snow. It was surprisingly stable. I had a few people come over to check out what I was doing which was nice.

Sure enough, after about 30 minutes of waiting, the chair opened and we were heading up. There was a red run that had been previously groomed, but it had filled in. That gave access to a short but steep face that looked really tasty. At the top we moved fast and buckled up our packs on the move. It was boot-top deep on the groomer. We overtook the boarders as they strapped in. No friends on a powder day! There were some nice turns to be had but it was more about getting to the steep pitch at the bottom. There was no rope, so it looked legal. It was steep though. I got there first and the rest of the group arrived behind me. It was definitely one at a time for the first go and I dropped in first. It was thigh deep and the snow billowed up over my head with each turn. I stopped halfway down and had the guys come down, one at a time as I filmed them.

It was so hard to see with all the fresh snow and heavy snow still falling from the sky. What a run! I didn't know the exit and someone else overtook us. They forged a line out to the left (apparently the easier exit was to the right) and they got stuck. I leapfrogged past them and started breaking trail out beyond them. It was hard work but now that the exit out was put in, we could have some fun here, with a short, quick lift back to the top. We circled back around for another lap and only a few more people added to the mix. With the constant snow, it kept filling in.

That was us for the day. We skied lap after lap. After a while, other lifts must have opened as the run emptied. We were the only ones left. We just kept moving a little to the right, eventually getting into some trees where it was even deeper. This was the deepest day of the season for the whole of my Japan season, with only that massive storm day in Sapporo Teine that was just as deep, but there was no decent terrain open there so that didn't really count. This was definitely the day. We had so many faceshots and everyone was hooting and hollering, it was a really fun afternoon.

We did go for a look at the other terrain, taking the upper lift and going into the trees. There the terrain was more undulating and there was so much snow, it was easy to get stuck. Although the run was longer, it just wasn't as fun. The previous runs were the best, but it was all amazing. After having our fill, we called it quits and headed back down to the Akakura Onsen side and back to the hotel. What an amazing day! Spirits were high and this was definitely a memorable day, one of the deepest days I've ever skied. The fun didn't end as the van still had to be dug out. Thankfully the guys still had some energy and gave me a hand. There was a lot of digging to be done and we knew we'd have to dig out again in the morning. A great problem to have!

Here's a few photos but the video will give a better feel.....



Here's the map again to show you where we were. We skied most of the runs under the chair 5


Going up chair 5, a fast triple, getting dumped on!


That's about 3 feet of snow on top of the van, on our way out to the ski area. That would need to be cleaned off when we got back.


There had been no snow around the van the previous days. The avalanches coming off the roofs of the hotel were impressive, as the storm moved in.


Gary in deep!


Gary, watched by Dave.


Dave and then Gary behind. Hard to see with all the snow.


Snowman Gary.


Gordon, buried!


Stay tuned for the video, it's a good one!

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

My deepest day for the season...... the video

Here's the video then, the deepest day of the season for me. We did have a really deep day in Hokkaido in early January, but there was no decent terrain open so that one didn't really count. This day we got some proper skiing done, albeit this video was filmed on just one short run, it was more than enough to have an amazing day and the deepest of the season for me. I didn't add any background music to this video, so I apologize in advance for all of the hooting and hollering and maybe a few outbursts of powder tourettes....




I didn't show the red run that we used to get to the steep face, that had been groomed during the night and was probably only boot top deep. The snow on the steeper black run, was thigh deep. We had a great time tracking that up. There was only a handful of people skiing that run and most of them only lasted an hour or so. Other lifts started to open and then we had that zone all to ourselves.

After we had hit the face a few times, we started moving into the trees and it was even deeper in there. It kept filling in as it was snowing hard all day. The last run in the video, it was getting so deep I couldn't see too well with all of the faceshots and I was getting choked on all of the snow, it was hard to breathe. We did get another run in from the top lift, but the terrain was too undulating and it was easy to get stuck. The short black run we skied for most of the day, was definitely where it was at......

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

22nd Feb - Back to Charmant Hiuchi

We'd had an amazing powder day on the 21st but unfortunately the sun was out and the temps were expected to rise again. We needed north-facing terrain and somewhere quiet. We had a few options but the group decided Charmant again as it had north-facing slopes, but it was a question of how tracked out it was going to be, that's something we didn't know. The hope was that we would still be able to find untracked powder. Whether or not that was going to be inbounds or in the backcountry, that remained to be seen, plus we were unsure of if the road was going to be open.

We made the 1 hour 15 minute drive and enjoyed spectacular views along the way. The road was open with just a little bit of snow on. Potential problem #1 ticked off.... As we came to the carpark, it was pretty quiet but as we scoped out the resort, it was pretty tracked with only a few small sections of untouched powder. Apparently we should have been there the day before.... Well, that answered a major question, Charmant is popular with local riders during a storm, it's not a place you can expect to hit after the storm and expect to get fresh track, inbounds at least.

Anyway, we'd come all that way, time to go skiing. We did a warm-up lap inbounds and found a few nice sections. it was fun skiing, but if that was as good as it was going to get, I think we needed to head out of bounds again. This time we knew that we needed to fill out some paperwork with patrol so we paid them a visit at the top of the lift. That was a pretty easy process second time round.

This time though we wanted to do a quick sidecountry lap and to our surprise, it was completely untouched. The snow was really nice as it was completely north-facing. It was a major double fall-line, but still nice skiing. This time we followed the creek all the way down to the bridge. It was a bit of a pain sidestepping above the bridge, but once the track was in, it would be easier get out if we were going to head that way again.

Only Gary wanted to tour, so he and I took the lift up again and headed over to the drop in point. We stopped at the scenic viewing point and took more photos of the stunning backcountry area. We could see a skin track going up the ridgeline and a couple of people had skied some nice looking lines on some steeper faces. It was feeling a bit warm do be doing something like that so we decided to stick to the same area we had explored earlier. This time though, we wanted to try and stay further to the skier's left and end up skiing the face above the bridge that looked really nice.

Thankfully there was a skin track all the way to the top and with the fresh snow still sticking to the trees, it was a beautiful climb. We had lovely views into the mountains and the active volcano emitting it's small plume of smoke. There were a few snowshoers at the top and then a couple who had pitched a tent for some amazing views. Then it was time to ski down. We started much further left and had a few nice pitches of soft, mostly untouched snow.

The terrain was quite complex and the fall-line wanted to try to take you into one of the many creek drainages. There was a big flatspot and it looked like we were going to have to climb up to the right, but then we saw a track going underneath the big ridge that were trying to push around to the left. That was the crux. Once we traversed/sidestepped around that, that brought us to a really nice area with better fall line and pitch. We could ski properly now. There were tracks but we could stay higher to the left and get fresh tracks. We had several nice pitches before we had to head down to the bridge.

This time we were coming in from above. There was about 5 foot of snow on top of the bridge and the guardrail was fully buried, with a decent drop below. It was a little unnerving but we both crossed safely. This time we had our track we put in out of the valley, so the sidestep out was a lot easier. We headed back down to the baselodge for a late lunch and a meetup with the others. It was very warm by this stage and no one wanted to head back out again. We finished our lunches and then headed back to the van for the drive back to Akakura. This was our last day of skiing and the next day we would take a walk around Nagano as the chances of good skiing were very limited.


Gotta love that view! Stopping for the obligatory shot behind the upper lodge.



The skin track or should I say the snowshoe track.....






Our drop in point, beautiful snow but the navigation would be the challenge with all of the creeks/ridges.



Stunning views, got to love that volcano. Would be epic out there....



They had the right idea!

Video coming next.....

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

Here is the video of that day. It shows the 3 different runs we did, starting with a quick clip of the inbounds run, with pretty tracked up snow. Then the sidecountry run where we hugged the ski area boundary to our right and then the final run where we toured up to the high point and then had to navigate back down. It finishes with the sketchy crossing of the bridge......




That's almost it for the blog. We just have 1 day left and that was our fun day exploring Nagano......

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

23rd Feb - Nagano

Given it had gotten so warm again, the consensus was we probably wouldn't be able to find much great skiing, so we decided to take a cultural day and go and check out the city of Nagano. I had not been to Nagano and was keen to see it. We took a free shuttle from our hotel and then jumped on the train at Myoko station to Nagano. Nagano station is in the heart of downtown Nagano and makes a great starting point. We were on a mission to get to the Zenko-ji Temple with stops at 5 other temples along the way. I'll apologize in advance that I don't remember what the names of the other temples were. We also checked out a lot of sidestreets and had an awesome Wagyu beef BBQ session for late lunch. We had a wonderful day looking around Nagano, I'll let the photos do all the talking..... there's quite a few.



View attachment 20230224_092623.mp4

On the 24th Feb, it was time to head back to Tokyo and take our flights back to the US. A few of us decided to take the big upgrade to Gran class or 1st class, on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. It was very comfortable and there were only a handful of people in the cabin, but since the Pandemic, there is no longer a food service so I don't think it was worth the upgrade over Green class. Green class has better storage as you can put ski bags above the seats in the overhead bins. In Gran class, you have individual overhead bins so you cannot put a ski bag up there. The Green class seats are not as plush as Gran, but not far off, but I think Green class is better value.

We got to Tokyo station nice and early and then we had to take the N'Ex (Narita Express) train to the airport. It's definitely a slog to carry all the bags through Tokyo station but doable. I really wish they had luggage carts, that would make life so much easier, but they don't. Anyway, we made it to Narita and then had several hours to wait for the plane and had a nice flight to San Francisco and then onto Denver.

I'll have one more post to go where I outline my thoughts about Myoko and then that will be a wrap for our 2023 trip report.

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

My final thoughts on Myoko.....

I think I'll wrap up this blogs with some thoughts on the experience we had in Myoko. This will be my last post here unless people have any follow-up questions or comments. Overall, Myoko is an amazing area and we had a great time, but it doesn't tick some of the boxes that I look for in an international trip. I don't think that it's a place I would go back to therefore. The fact that I was naming where we went (which I don't normally name in Hokkaido and definitely not in Tohoku) was a major hint that I wouldn't want to return..... but why is that? I know that everyone's looking for something different but I like to go to Japan for the powder and the culture primarily and I think most of the people that come with me on these trips have a similar mindset.

I love Hokkaido and Tohoku, I've been there many times before and know the areas well. We've always been able to tick all the boxes there. If you know where to go, the powder is plentiful and the culture exciting and abundant. I accept the fact that it's always tough when you visit somewhere new, trying to get the lay of the land and explore it for yourself, not really knowing where to go to find the all the hidden stashes, especially if you don't have the local knowledge or help. It's easy to take it for granted when you mainly ski the places you know well and you can find powder easily.

I think we found good areas where if the snow was good, it would have been great skiing. We saw some major glimpses of the potential of the place with two epic powder days in Akakura Onsen and then the beautiful sidecountry in Charmant. Had we had consistently good snow during the trip then our visits to Madaro and Suginohara, would have been epic too. The terrain is there; it's not hard to find amazing runs when the conditions are good. There were other resorts that were on the list that we didn't get to visit because of the weather. Unfortunately you can't change the weather though and when temps were really high, even the north-facing runs get impacted. I left feeling like we only just scratched the surface and there was a lot more to explore if conditions were different.

I had done a lot of pre-trip planning for this trip and when looking for places to stay, I liked that Akakura Onsen was accessible to so many other resorts and that you could leave the car at the hotel in the evening and visit different restaurants. That's the first time we've had 1 central base in Japan and didn't have to move hotels. That was a welcome change. The expressway was closeby making it easy to get to some of the other resorts. So there were a lot of positives there. You can see a lot, especially if you have your own transportation.

Unfortunately it was the cultural side of things that didn't tick a major box. Akakura was very Westernized, too much for my taste. It felt like the Japanese people there were the minority and that Westerners were the majority. It felt a bit like being back in Niseko or Rusutsu in that regard. That's not what I go to Japan for normally. I don't mind seeing a few Westerners here and there, but it felt over-run. I was wary of that being the case prior to going and proved to be the case. Hopefully that's good news for the local businesses though. The restaurants seemed to be doing well, most places you would need to make a reservation in advance to be seated and the hotels get booked up well in advance.

Our hotel was in a great location and it had several onsen, but it was very outdated and desperately needed a renovation. Finding suitable accommodation had been the major challenge prior to the trip. I found that the hotels that had been renovated were very high in price or didn't have the best location. The more affordable ones seemed to be in need of an update. I would hope that in a few years, once travel has been re-established and hotels are making decent money again, then some of that money can be put back into these properties. This is not isolated to Myoko or even to Japan, the whole travel industry globally has been negatively impacted by the Pandemic obviously. The ski industry in Japan had been in decline since the recession of the 80's and it could be argued that with growing Western visitation in the 2000's, that some popular areas in Japan were starting to grow again (Niseko, Rusutsu, Hakuba region as examples). The Pandemic definitely put a pause on the recovery but hopefully that is just temporary.

So that was my major issue with the place, but it was enough for me to say that I've been there done that and I probably don't need to go back. If think that if you are looking for a large area with plenty of decent ski areas to choose from and you are not worried by a large amount of Westerners being there already, then it's a great place to go to. If you can find a nice hotel at a decent price and also know that you'll need to make advanced reservations at the restaurants at night, then it will be a better experience.

I'm also torn by the fact that there are so many other places in other parts of the world (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Iran if the regime changes, Russia also if the regime changes and others) that I want to explore. I'm happy with the other places in Japan we go to, I think they scratch my Japan itch enough, for now. Will I explore other places in Japan in the future, then maybe? I know that there are other zones to explore in the future but that will be on the back-burner for now.

Overall, it was great to visit somewhere new, to explore and experience some very memorable ski days. I skied the deepest powder of my entire season that day in Akakura Onsen and had some of the best views I've ever seen at a resort, at Charmant. Those are the memories that will stay with me forever and I'm extremely appreciative of that. But those experiences weren't enough to make me want to go back when there's still a lot more places to explore. Not every trip I take works out quite how you'd like it to (thinking China 2017 and NZ 2019), but even then, you still have some unique and unforgettable experiences even if the skiing side of things doesn't work out.

That's it for me, for now. Chile is just around the corner and I'll be wheels up in one weeks time. That will be the next report. Thanks for following along with this trip, now it's on to the next adventure.....

- Matt