International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) 2024 Hokkaido Trip Report

[Mattadvproject]

2024 Hokkaido Trip Report

Is it that time of the year again? I guess so..... First off, I want to apologize if it's looking like I'm hogging the TR section, it's not intended. Hopefully other people will be posting their TR's here soon. I'm sure given the poor conditions across most of the US at least, people might be holding off posting? Anyway, my season overseas is about to start and I'm happy to post my TR's here. This winter I'll be heading to Hokkaido for 2 weeks (15th - 29th Jan) and then Tohoku (Japan) for another 11-days at the start of February.

Originally I was supposed to be in Kazakhstan at that time but I didn't get enough people to sign up so we switched to Tohoku instead. In the second half of February I'll be heading back to Uzbekistan (was last there in 2022 and I'm excited for a second visit) and then there's nothing happening until the end of March when I have been invited out to Norway for a little recon trip to explore the resorts along the way from Oslo to Bergen. That should be a really fun time, I'm looking forward to that one greatly. I'll post separate reports as always for each trip.

As for Hokkaido, well, hopefully we should be experiencing some good conditions again. They are still catching up a little with the snowpack this season as it's been a slower start than usual, but a lot of things can happen in 2 weeks and hopefully the base will be deeper by then. I know it can only be better than what we are experiencing here in Colorado (Granby area) currently. Any powder will be a welcome change!

Sadly, as I'm sure a lot of people already know, Japan has just experienced a terrible earthquake, so it feels somewhat inappropriate to be talking about a ski trip when many people on the central West Coast of Honshu are going through some really tough times. My heart goes out to them. Then we also had the air crash at Haneda airport this morning where more lives have been lost..... So, so sad. I'm very sorry this has happened.

We do have to keep moving forward though and I'll be leaving for Hokkaido on the 15th Jan from Denver. I'll be on the direct flight from Denver to Narita and then a quick domestic flight to Sapporo. This Fall has been a challenge as I've been struggling with some injuries sustained in a fall down our stairs at home back in October. My back and ribs have been pretty bad so I've been seeing a chiropractor and he's been doing a good job. I've been skiing again and slowly building up my strength and stamina and I seem to be able to ski somewhat pain free. The next 2 weeks will be pretty intensive as I try to really ramp things up. Fingers crossed my back holds up....

There's some decent storms lining up for Hokkaido so I'll keep doing my snow dance. It must be working as we are even forecast to get some snow here in Granby later this week. That would be great! As always, I'll be posting here as regularly as possible. Hope you can follow along. Please consider subscribing to this thread if you want easy access to the updates. Cheers!

- Matt

 

[Jim McDonald]

Matt, I'm in Furano 1/14~20 and Niseko 1/21~27. Love to get a beer with you if you're around at those times.

 

[Mattadvproject]

Matt, I'm in Furano 1/14~20 and Niseko 1/21~27. Love to get a beer with you if you're around at those times.

Hi Jim,
Yes, I will be in Furano from the 18th to the 23rd of Jan, so we do need to have an adult beverage! I'm staying at the La Vista Hotel in downtown Furano.
Kind regards,
Matt

 

[Jim McDonald]

Wife & I will be at Hotel Bell Hills, near Kitanomine Gondola.
après beverage on 18th or 19th near there, or downtown later in evening?

 

[Mattadvproject]

Wife & I will be at Hotel Bell Hills, near Kitanomine Gondola.
après beverage on 18th or 19th near there, or downtown later in evening?

I think Downtown somewhere. I will be with clients so have to make sure they are all good first....

 

[Jim McDonald]

Of course, they're your priority and I don't want to cause a problem.

 

[Mattadvproject]

14th Jan - Travel to Denver

And so it begins! The journey to Japan has begun, hopefully this is the most challenging day of travel! Today was definitely an adventure.....
Julie and I woke up to find it absolutely dumping with snow in Granby so we decided to expedite our departure. We had everything packed up and in the car by 11am and headed up the 40 towards Berthoud Pass

It took around 45 minutes to get to Winter Park and the queue for the pass. Not long after that we saw that the pass was closed and we heard that an avalanche had come down and buried a few cars on the road. No bueno! I later found out it was 10 cars that got buried

We waited a couple of hours and saw that the I-70 had reopened and after chatting with the sheriff who said the pass could be closed all night, we turned around and took the road to Kremmling and then Silverthorne.

It was slow going but after 7 hours, we made it to our hotel near the airport. The forecast is for 1 inch of snow tomorrow at DIA so hopefully I can fly out to Tokyo without anymore dramas. We just found out no one was hurt in the avalanche on Berthoud Pass, so that's great news.


Leaving Granby and the road is not looking too bad....



Stuck near the entrance to Mary Jane for a couple of hours. I spoke to the Sheriff and he said that the road might not even open all. Then we heard about the avalanche across the road, so we decided it was time to turn around and head back the way we came and try to make it to the I-70 which had just reopened.



Heading slowly into the Eisenhower Tunnel. Once we made it through the tunnel, our confidence in making it down to Denver increased.



Looks like a fine for you my friend! Traction law was in effect but it was surprising to see how many trucks didn't have them on yet. This guy had hit the barrier and had semi-jacknifed his trailer. Great job buddy. He didn't have chains on.....

Hopefully I'll be on the plane to Tokyo tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

15th/16th Jan - Travel to Tokyo and Chitose

My wife and I were pretty happy just to be able to make it to Denver, so any flights leaving for Tokyo would be a bonus. My wife was traveling to Palm Springs for a work conference at a similar time to my flight to Narita, so we would say goodbye at the airport. It was a freezing cold morning (8C) with a strong wind and blowing snow, so I was definitely concerned that the flight would be delayed or canceled.

We arrived at the airport around 3 hours prior to departure and check went quickly and smoothly. We headed to the United lounge at the A concourse and I do have to say that this new lounge is a step up from the older lounge in concourse B. We had an hour together and then I had to head over to B for my flight to Narita. This was the direct DEN-NRT flight that is so convenient, the only challenge now is that there are not as many flights (with ANA at least) from NRT to CTS (Shin Chitose Aiport - AKA Sapporo International Airport) as there used to be, I think Haneda is becoming the international hub for overseas flights.

I only had 2 hours for the connection, so time was tight. Sure enough, we were slow getting out of the gate and de-icing took a while, so all in all, were left about an hour behind schedule. The captain did say that they were expecting to be able to make up some time during the flight so he hoped we wouldn't be too late. My plan was to stay up as long as possible and watch movies and I definitely achieved that, I think I got through 5 but admittedly Barbie did put me to sleep for a little while (what did happen to Ken?). There was a little turbulence but nothing major.

Thankfully we had a strong tail wind and managed to make up around 30 minutes, so I had a little more time to make it off the flight. I didn't hang around though, walking really fast to get to immigration, I was first one there from the flight. Having completed the immigration and customs form online and receiving a QR code, a passed quickly through immigration. Then I had to grab my bags and then head to customs. My bags came out pretty quickly and then I could proceed through customs and then exit the secured area into arrivals. Then it was a short walk to check in for ANA domestic and get rid of the bags again. The staff were very friendly and spoke decent English. I was a little concerned when one of the check-in staff started measuring my ski bag, but he didn't say anything and when they weighed it, even though it was a few pounds overweight, they let it go.

Then I had to head back through security and that all went very quickly as the airport was quiet and they have a fast access lane for Star Alliance Gold members. I made it to the gate with 40 minutes to spare and then they announced the flight was going to be late departing due to all the snow in Chitose. Initially they said it could be several hours which was fine with me as I didn't think I would even make it this far, but then they soon announced boarding would begin only 20 minutes late, so that was nothing. We had an extra 20 minutes at the gate when we were onboard, but again, no big deal. They said that the flight would be quite rough and were very proactive at not letting people take off their seatbelts, but the flight turned out to be quite smooth.

When we arrived at Chitose, it was snowing hard and there was a lot of snow covering the runway, I was surprised that we made it at all. I found out that JAP cancelled most of their flights but ANA seemed ok. Other flights in had had a lot of turbulence and one flight came in with a lot of passengers throwing up all over the place. Nasty! Glad I wasn't on that one.....

My bags came out quickly and then my friend Grant was there to pick me up. We made it to the hotel by about 930pm and I had some snacks from he Family Mart in the hotel lobby and then hit the hay around 11pm. I slept pretty well. On the 17th I was up for breakfast around 830am and then had to take care of some emails/work. At 11am Grant took me to an electronics store to buy a massage gun and then I picked up the van at 3pm from Toyota Rent-A-Car near the airport. One of my guests arrived around 2:30pm and when I got back from Toyota we went across the road from the hotel and had a lovely lamb soup curry. Then I had to do a couple of runs back to the airport to pick up my remaining guests. Tomorrow morning we hit the road to Furano with a stop in Mt. Racey for a half-day ski along the way.


Arriving at CTS (Sapporo International Airport) it was snowing hard and there was quite the cover on the runway. I'm surprised we made it in!


A little night cap before bed.....


The view from my room the next day. The storm was over and it was sunny with plenty of new snow on the ground.


Visiting a large electronics store in Chitose to pick up a massage gun.


Our rental van. I think I shall name it Rocky!


Famichiki friend chicken for lunch. That ones for you @Drahtguy Kevin !





Kelvin (Absolute Zero) enjoying some Soup Curry! First time eating here, it was great. Just across the road from the ANA Crowne Plaza Chitose.


Lamb sour curry with a large serving of rice. Very tasty!

- Matt

 

[Jenny]

Glad you made it OK - looking forward to the pictures!

 

[Mattadvproject]

18th Jan - Travel to Furano and Our First Ski

The objective for the day was to get to Furano but with a stop for some skiing on the way. I love to stop at Mt. Racey/Yubari on the way to Furano normally. It's about 1 hour from Chitose and out in the middle of nowhere and Furano is 2 hours further north. Yubari has a somewhat sad history as a town massively in decline due to the effects of an aging population and then the collapse of the coal mining industry in the 80's.

I believe (feel free to fact check this) that Yubari once had a population of around 110,000 people at the height of the coal mining days and now it's declined to only 5,000 or so people as coal is been overtaken by nuclear power in more recent times. It's kind of a ghost town now, with many abandoned apartment buildings for the former miners, plus a couple of abandoned schools and even an abandoned baseball stadium. It used to also be famous for the Yubari International Film Festival that hosted many famous movie premiers, including Quentin Tarantino who was showing Pulp Fiction. At the time, he was also writing the Kill Bill movies and as he was staying in Yubari, he named one of the popular characters in the second movie, the school girl assassin Gogo Yubari after the town. That's a pretty cool claim to fame but unfortunately one that has not helped the town of Yubari in the ling run.

We were there for some fun skiing, to get the boys warmed up. Surprisingly, the snowbanks were pretty large as we reached town so I was optimistic for decent conditions and the potential to ski some trees if coverage was sufficient. We bought a 4-hour ticket for 4,200 JPY ($28) and did a couple of laps, skirting the far ends of the resort so I could give the lay of the land and also scope the coverage in my favorite tree areas. It looked decent but the guys wanted to ease in gently, so we did a couple of regular ungroomed trails before I finally asked them if they would like to try some trees. I dropped in first and find some nice untouched lines in some settled pow, calling back any hazards I found via the radios. The trees were skiing nice, but pretty steep.

We had a nice lunch (Katsu pork cutlet curry for me, that's Japanese comfort food) and then had a couple more runs. The confidence started to increase and I think more aggressive tree skiing is in the future for this group. Then it was a beautiful 2 hours to get to Furano, with plenty of wildlife on display. We saw a Golden Eagle and then some lovely Yezo Sika deer and some impressive bucks.

After checking into the hotel, we went on a walkabout around downtown Furano with a stop a Yakitori restaurant for some skewers and sushi. Tomorrow, we will hit the road again for some more pow and hopefully a little ski touring. Sadly the snowfalls seem to be drying up for the first half of the trip but hopefully we can still find some settled pow and get into some ski touring. For some of the guys that will be their first time and I'm eager to show them the ropes.


Nice to see the sun and the view from the top of the gondola


What you can't see is that there is a steep but short slope that had avalanched a while ago. Useful information and an eye opener for the group


Scott in the trees


Kelvin


Lunch - Katsu curry for me! Japanese comfort food....


Getting deeper into the trees, they really started to open up


Steve


Just a little bit of gear! Great traction for the van now....


One of the old movie posters seen on the side of a building in Yubari, for the film festival. This one is for Planet of the Apes.


Mystery meats/grilled skewers, part of a great dinner.

- Matt

 

[my07mcx2]

i always enjoy following your trips! Stay safe.

 

[Mattadvproject]

i always enjoy following your trips! Stay safe.

Thanks kindly for that! Appreciate the kind words. Plenty more to come! Thanks for following along on the adventures.

 

[Mattadvproject]

19th Jan - A lovely spot

We hit the road for our first full day of skiing and headed east for about 1 hour 10 minutes. I won't name this place as it's one of my favorites and doesn't get too much traffic, though it's not too hard to figure out if you know Hokkaido. I'd had a blast there last season and we ended up skiing there two days in a row. It was a beautiful drive with the sun out. We arrived around 11am and then bought a 4 hour ticket for 6,000 JPY (about $40). The gondola was down for maintenance but there are two chairlifts that get you relatively quickly to the top instead.

Our plan was to ski the sidecountry area behind the main peak and I wanted to give the guys the best chance of skiing a classic Hokkaido line. There were a few tracks in there already but after a short traverse, we had an nice untouched line below us. I skied down first and set up to take some stills with my new DSLR camera and the guys came down one at a time. Then we skied another pitch and went really far down into the drainage, the furthest I have been before.

It definitely gets pretty steep down there, there is a big creek that really drops off so we had to stay away from that. I was most of the groups first time ski touring, so I ran through how to transition and then through skinning technique and different turns (step, AVA/VAV and kick turns). Then it was a steady climb up and out. We transitioned again and I tried traversing us out, but it was slow going. Breaking trail in the powder meant that I had to point downhill too much to generate any kind of momentum and that meant losing too much altitude, plus the exposed sassa grass (bamboo) made line choice very difficult.

After way too much effort and time, we agreed it was time to put the skins back on and climb up higher until we hit a decent traverse line out. Then we could finally cruise on back to the resort. The guys were pretty spent by this stage, so we called it quits and had a late lunch. We went to the foodcourt at the baselodge and enjoyed an awesome curry with the thickest cheese naan I have ever enjoyed. It was a welcome reward after a tough day.

All in all, still a very positive time. We enjoyed great skiing at the top and bottom of the run (middle was a little tracked in comparison) and then the group gained valuable insight and experience skinning for the first time. It was a lot of effort for just the one run, so it's questionable if the juice was worth the squeeze this time, but I think gaining skills that can be used for the future, is a real positive. Hopefully we can continue on and get more mileage with the touring and really gain some confidence with it. We'll see what happens and if the group wants to continue along that route.

Tomorrow, I think we'll keep it local and ski Furano. Hopefully we can get some more snow in a couple of days. Here's some ski shots.....



- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

20th Jan - Funrano!

Enjoying a mellower day in Furano. After all the exertion of the previous day, the group wanted to relax a little and explore the groomers and inbounds trees within the resort. We started at the Kitanomine gondola side and did a quick lap there before heading over to the Furano zone and skiing down to the bottom so we could take the tram all the way up again (some of the group had never ridden a tram before).

We did a couple of laps on the double chair at the top and went to the edge of the Premium Zone for a little close-up. It's amazing to see all of the glide cracks in the premium zone this year, they are everywhere! I've not seen it like this before, it's pretty bad..... We did not venture that far in.

To finish off the day, we had a wonderful group dinner at Masaya restaurant and it was nice to hang with the other group. We had a ton of food including several servings of Gyoza, Hokkaido sausage and then the Okonomiyaki for appetizers. I had the flaming pork rib (the chefs put on a entertain fire show, setting the grill on fire in a spectacular way!). Today we are off on another adventure. We need more snow but hopefully that is coming in a couple of nights time. Fingers crossed!


Surveying all the glide cracks in the Premium Zone. The Premium zone was not looking so premium....


The view of the Tokachi mountains was just starting to peep out as we skirted the edge of the Premium Zone.


When in Furano....


Tokachi Mountains/Daisetsuzan National Park with an active volcano venting.


Okonomiyaki (popular pan-fried dish that consists of batter and cabbage). The thin flakes on top are fish flakes and they dance around in the heat of the skillet/food. It makes it look like the dish is alive!


Pork rib


Kelvin and I went to a little dive bar down a back alley we found, It was a shock to find they charge a seating charge so 2,400 JYP seemed a lot for only 2 beers, but then we found out about the charge. Should have drank more beer!

- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

21st Jan - Redemption!

Back in the Hokkaido powder factory! Surprisingly, the guys wanted to head back to the same location we skied on the 19th of January where they worked really hard. I was eager to return as I thought this would be the best option for the snow and I wanted to redeem myself and show them that we could more easily exit the sidecountry and enjoy easier laps.

We started in the resort and had a couple of exploratory laps inbounds,. It was starting to snow at a decent rate. We tried some trees with different aspects and neither was amazing, so I suggested we head out of bounds again and look for lines over the backside of the mountain which would likely hold more untouched snow. Sure enough, after we got down a little lower, we found some great boot top deep corridors in amongst the trees and brush. That was great skiing.

Using Gaia maps and some of the tracks I had recorded previously, I was able to keep us on a traverse line that kept us high enough to traverse out without stopping. The guys were pretty stoked on this. We did three laps in this zone before heading back to the base lodge to warm up and get a late lunch. It's been bitterly cold these past few days. I had more curry and another cheese naan. It was great! Redemption was had.....

Then we went out for dinner. It was just Steve, Scott and myself and we tried to get into the sushi train but it was 7:20pm and the line was huge. We wouldn't have been seated in time for closing so they had to turn us around unfortunately. Thankfully though, we went to their sister restaurant on the edge of town and that was really good. It was quiet in the restaurant so they could seat us straight away. I had a lovely beef and rice bowl plus some amazing fried chicken. The guys had some great sushi and sashimi.

All in all, a solid day and I was thankful for the improving conditions....

















Beef and raw egg rice bowl


Fried chicken, minus a few pieces







- Matt

 

[Mattadvproject]

22nd Jan - Heading North

We headed north from Furano to a small ski area I've frequented many times before. It took about an hour with the very icy roads. The forecast was calling for 3cm's of fresh but there was a lot more than that when we arrived at the mountain! It was more like boot-top deep, so that was a nice surprise. I think that got the crew a bit more fired up and we attacked the powder with aplomb!

We headed out into the sidecountry from the top of the gondola and enjoyed several nice runs in the backbowls and trees. The challenge was to put in a flowing traverse line out and after getting slightly too low on the first lap, I found a good line out and we were able to get back to the resort quickly and easily. Once that line was in, we could lap fast. After several laps in the sidecountry, we finished with a nice long lap in some inbounds trees on the frontside of the mountain. We had a late lunch and Jon took on a massive silver platter of food. The platter won.... I had a nice Katsudon which is rice topped with pork cutlet, onion cooked in egg, with a small bowl of Miso, all for only 1,200 JPY or about $8.10! Beats what you'd find in a ski resort cafeteria in the US by a mile.....

Not that I was hungry at all, but this is an eating trip with food after all..... but for dinner, we had a lovely Yakiniku BBQ experience at the Mangoo restaurant in town that evening, about a 6 minute walk from our hotel. Today we transition to Otaru for 5 more nights. I won't be needing breakfast today!












We had a nice variety of open bowl skiing and tighter trees


Jon taking on the silver platter challenge. This was pork cutlet, hash browns, fried chicken, rice, cabbage and Katsu curry sauce, all for 2,000 JPY or about $13.50 USD


Katsudon


Korean BBQ, with Wagyu brisket, fatty pork and a bunch of other items.

- Matt

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Stultz looks content.

 

[Mattadvproject]

Stultz looks content.

Oh yes, Wagyu beef on the BBQ = a happy Dave! He's going to want to do that a lot in Tohoku....

 

[Mattadvproject]

23rd Jan - Heading to Otaru

Sadly it was time to leave Furano and head to Otaru for the next 5 nights. We'd had a fun time, unfortunately the snow gods didn't quite deliver the legendary Hokkaido powder but there was hope for a big storm when we got to Otaru. That storm started early and we had a lot of snow when we left Furano. The boys wanted to take a rest day so we weren't planning on skiing.

The first hour was in heavy snow through the mountains outside Furano but when we hit the freeway, the sun came out and temps warned up considerably. That made for much easier driving conditions and we made it to Otaru in about 2.5 hours. It was much easier going than expected. Temps were 4 degrees C in Otaru! We parked the van down in the garage at the Dormy Inn and went to check in at just after 2pm. They gave us an early check-in so then we could head out on a walkabout.

We started with a walk along the canal and then headed to the Otaru Brewery for some big beers and fresh pretzels. The Brewery is an Austrian-style beer hall and they make really good beer. The Weizen is my favorite. Then we walked around this little street with all of these small eateries that will fit about 6 people each. We had a beer in one of those before heading to another street like that one where a friend of mine (Hashimoto-san) has an awesome little ramen shop. We had a great time with him. These style of eateries are a lot of fun and very social; I always seem to talk to different people. It's a great time.

After dinner and another beer at little bar, we headed back up towards our hotel and I suggested we try some karaoke. The guys initially were a little shy about trying it, thinking it was Western style where you would get up on stage infront of a bunch of people. Here you hire your own private room and it's just you and your mates. We did 2 hours and signed up for a few more beers. After a few warmup songs, the guys really got into it and we had a great time. We were done by 10pm and made it back to the hotel.


The Otaru canal and all of the old warehouses that have been converted into restaurants, shops, etc. Bus loads of people will come visit during the day. That sidewalk was a block of ice!


You can take a very short boat ride up and down the canal.


Enjoying some big beers and pretzels in the brewery.





That's what happens when you order a shandy! It only comes in small glasses....


View of the main crossing near the canal, from the tower at the Otaru Denuki Koji street.


The Denuki Koji street has an upper floor too!


Lovely ramen from Hashimoto-san's shop.


One of the little bars


Some of the crazy array of foods available from the 7-11 convenience store!

- Matt

 

[Lauren]

then Tohoku (Japan) for another 11-days at the start of February.

I leave on Saturday! Will arrive in Aomori on the 29th and shuffling around Tohoku until the 10th. Maybe I'll see ya there!

Oh yes, Wagyu beef on the BBQ = a happy Dave! He's going to want to do that a lot in Tohoku....

Any specific rec's for BBQ restaurants in Tohoku?