International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) Drowning in Japow

[Eleeski]

Drowning in Japow. We hope so. Of course there's a downside to that...

Travel is always hard. It's MLK weekend and the TSA isn't getting paid. Airport horror stories are all over the news. So we get to the airport 3 hours early. No lines and friendly TSA. We kill the time walking the terminal. Actually, we did go to American only to be redirected to JAL so we used some time on that. Our flight to Tokyo was on time and we even had an empty seat on our row. The 2 hour layover in Tokyo was about right.

We did have a small ski issue. JAL's ski policy clearly states that a ski bag plus a boot bag counts as one piece of luggage. After clearing customs in Tokyo we had to recheck our bags to Sapporo. They wouldn't take the boots as checked luggage. Too full in the luggage hold or some translation difficulty. They weighed our carryons in San Diego but ignored that in Tokyo. We got our boots to Sapporo in the full overhead storage.

It took forever on the ground in Tokyo. Our son was leaving Osaka to arrive Sapporo a bit before us so we were worried that he'd be concerned about the delay. We arrived a bit late to a couple inches, oops cm here, of snow on the ramp. Jokes among the other skiers about no friends on a powder day. Another traveler was wondering if he would make the last bus to Rutsusu (no, and my car rental isn't looking so silly now). Our skis and bags were last off but we made it!

Now where was our son? He should have had plenty of time to meet us per plan at baggage claim. No, his plane turned around and flew back to Osaka. Too much snow!

So I'm typing this while jetlagged in the airport hotel waiting to pick him up from his new and way more expensive flight. And looking out the window at the stars through clear skies. Go figure.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

Got up early to head back to the airport to pick up the rental car. Spending the first night near the airport is a good idea. Especially when flight issues arise. Got on the rental bus with a Polish skier we met on the plane. He missed his pickup time the night before with our delay. Ended up getting the car at the same time as our planned pickup.

Had a big safety lecture and test before renting. I had gotten the international driver's licence and those slow drives up 395 avoiding tickets all paid off as they let me rent. With 5% of their cars coming back damaged I understand - and will be careful. Especially since it started snowing as soon as I got in the car. What happened to the sunny day?

The weather deteriorated on the drive back to the hotel. Zero zero in heavy snow. Will they turn Kirk's plane around again? It's delayed for sure.

So we killed the time shopping for a snow shovel. Actually this was a planned item on the itinerary. The Aeon market had one! And Japanese scotch. Not everything in Japan is expensive - alcohol isn't.

The internet said that the flight world land so we headed off to the airport. Driving on the wrong side of the road is a challenge. It makes me a little dyslexic (had to use spellchecker for that one) so I didn't quite follow the GPS lady's left turn. Uturns irritate her as well. She started recalculating before I'd missed the turns. I followed the signs to the airport.

The weather cleared up and the flight landed. Pickup was easy as I didn't get hassled waiting at the curb for the couple minutes it takes to actually meet someone. Off to lunch!

I knew we were not headed the direction of the hotel so I took the other road. GPS directions to the lunch spot we chose took us to the other side of the street from our hotel. OK, the black Japanese curry was great.

The delays and rerouting ate our chances of skiing today so we headed directly to Rusustu. Via GPS lady guidance through Sapporo's back alleys. We got there.

So much of our notions of Japan come from the culture of the cities. But the rural countryside is so spectacular. It's an amazingly beautiful island.

The Rusustu Westin is pretty nice. Ski in. A funky monorail to the main resort. We missed skiing so headed over to the pool via the monorail. I almost went in my bathrobe but the monorail looked cold. Still, I was in a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops. The pool was a tiny waterpark crowded with kids and had a wave machine going. (Squaw needs something like this - plus a lap pool) Fun but not a workout so we headed back to the monorail. We must have pushed the button too late because it trundled past us leaving us standing in the snow. Shivering. The white bathrobe hid how much snow fell on me during the wait.

Dinner was a funky crowded izakaya restaurant. Very entertaining.

Today we get to Ski!

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

The road to Rusustu. The picture doesn't really catch the beauty around Lake Toya.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

Skiing at last. Bought the lift tickets in the hotel front desk. It's refreshing that 3 retail tickets here was less than one ticket at Squaw. I hope that never changes.

Walked to the service lift to take us to the mountain. It had a plastic bubble over the chair to keep me warm. Nice, except it came down very quickly after launch and stayed down until just before getting off. A little disconcerting for any claustrophobic tendencies.

At East mountain, saw a line at the gondola so took a chair instead for a warm up. No plastic so it was cold. Got off to nice snow! The main run was groomed but a nice comfortable strip on the side had 25cm of untracked over a soft base. This is awesome.

The line at the gondola was gone so we rode that up. The black diamond run was nice and steep with knee deep powder. If we went to the edges and barely into the trees, it was untracked. We lapped that with a big snowy face shotted smile.

It was getting cut up so we headed to the next mountain over. Rode the gondola to the top of Mount Isola. The snow was even better! By now we were late and had to stick to the trees for the untracked. The main trails were becoming sweet soft bumps. All good!

A couple more laps in the trees for the untracked and it was lunchtime. The cafeteria was busy but we easily found seats. Brown curry and miso ramen. Yum!

Great morning. Perhaps we tactically erred by not charging to Mount Isola but our learning curve was very fun and the snow we found was so excellent. One of the best powder days ever!

We were pretty spent by now and we figured the powder was done so we headed to tour the West mountain area. It's a mellower hill with lots of beginner traffic. And leftover stashes of untracked! We lapped that until my knee called it.

Kirk (who has had several days in Japan already) said it was his worst Japan powder day. He chided us for being slow and lazy and missing the early goods. And smiled as he settled in to the warm comfortable Westin instead of having to sleep on the overnighter bus.

Japow is real - and magic. We'll see what the weather brings for the next few days.

Eric

 

[Alexzn]

Enjoy! And never check your ski boots on a flight, thats an invitation for disaster

 

[Eleeski]

@Alexzn I've never rented boots in all my life. I'm not sure I could. Good point. But I'll check them on the way home. My boots are getting old.

We have nice weather now and snow forecast for later. Maybe a tactical error but we are leaving Rusustu early to go ski with the gaijin Ikon Aussies at Niseko waiting for the storm. We might come back for more powder.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

We did abandon Rusutsu early. Maybe a mistake as they opened the West gondola to a bunch of untracked terrain in bluebird conditions. Sigh, Rusutsu was fantastic.

A surprisingly easy drive to Niseko Grand Hirafu got us there for lunch at the hot dog cart. I'm not a hot dog fan but the chili potatoes were edible. Everyone spoke English here. Our Icon passes worked!

It was busy but not crowded. Maybe because the snow was crap. Packed powder but everything was very groomed. We're chasing raw powder! The trees were pretty much skied out but great fun in easy criss crossing tracks through a comfortable forest. Strawberry Fields had bells and arrows for extra entertainment. It was the place to be and there was a lift line at the Hanazono side to reflect that. Not too long, really. There is a giant development going on there. When it's done, that lift will be overloaded.

We looked for bumps but there's too much grooming. Where it wasn't groomed the snowboards ruined the flow of the bumps. Add the poor visibility of the approaching storm and I struggled in the few bumps we found.

What's with all the snowboards? Are we in LA? It's not like Squaw where the boarders are carving the same lines as the skiers. There were some experts but a lot of side sliding down the hill. Even in the powder. It packed out things really quickly. And weird. Tolerance, acceptance... rant over.

The storm moved in strong. Zero visibility so we gave up. The way down was very crowded - almost as bad as Mountain Run at Squaw. Survived the parking lot crash next to us, avoided the police interrogation and headed off slippery roads to Snow Dog. Not slopeside so we'll have to decide on where to drive for the powder the storm is dumping. Good problems for a powder trip!

Eric

 

[James]

Nice reports!

 

[Mattadvproject]

Make sure you go chat to the Talking Tree at Rusutsu..... silly but fun!

 

[Eleeski]

Storm day! Wait, storm day... Nothing is reported open. Wind speed, 6m/sec. Somehow we lost a zero in translation and thought it was hurricane winds at the base. It was windy at the condo. Nothing is reported open. So we slowly got ready. We decided to get coffee at the base and wait for things to open. Digging out the car took a while.

The local from the condo management told us that Niseko Village was our best bet. So we headed there. The drive, parking, getting a ticket and getting to a real lift took a while. Meanwhile, lifts opened up and a few laps elapsed for others to get the untracked. The line was pretty long and we just got crumbs by the time we skied. As competitive as Squaw!

Once we got over the disappointment of blowing the timing, we enjoyed playing in the trees and edges of the piste. Banzai was short but fun with small lines so we enjoyed that. Mori No chair was more vertical and the crowds thinned after a while so we lapped that. The bumps were not great - there are way too many unskilled snowboarders side slipping the hill.

Suddenly, the hill emptied. It was lunchtime, not a new opening. We decided to head to Annupuri hoping for fewer crowds at lunch and a different gamble on weather. It was a hairy backroad GPS guide on steep blind one lane curves but fortunately no other drivers were as stupid as me. Annupuri was much less crowded. Decent lunch and off skiing.

The hill is a bit flatter and much more wide open. Serviced by a covered high speed quad that went a long ways. It was snowing and blowing and we didn't see too many tracks. Wow! This was fun! The snow was quite heavy but skied nicely. Especially in the trees which were very comfortably widely spaced. No steep drop face shots in fluff but smooth enjoyable snow. Good gamble on Annupuri.

We quit when our legs were spent. Our son took a couple more laps in the trees for some hike to untracked which he enjoyed immensely.

Not drowning but a great Japow day!

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

@Mattadvproject Talking Tree? Where do we look? We might head back there.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

Driving in Japan.

 

[Mattadvproject]

@Mattadvproject Talking Tree? Where do we look? We might head back there.

Eric

Eric,
It's at the western base lodge, inside, not too far from the main entrance. If you have younger kids, they will love it (I did too!). Press the button and wait for the magic. There's also a carousel, shops and restaurants. It's good for an hour or two. Then you have the theme park outside, covered in snow. Something different....

- Matt

 

[Jim McDonald]

Ah, if you've skied through one roller coaster, you've skied through them all!

 

[Eleeski]

Day after storm day. Now it gets interesting. Niseko United was all closed up top yesterday. It will open today. There will be magic conditions up top. The bottom might be sketchy as the snowfall after closing wasn't huge and very little after night skiing ended. I remembered the crowds at Niseko Village and was worried about being part of the first wave hunting the high untracked.

Niseko Moiwa is a small resort that's not part of the Icon/United system. It has a reputation for light crowds and lasting powder. Given the overnight snow buildup on the car, we gambled that it might be the best powder hope.

Another one lane two way GPS specified road and we arrived at Niseko Moiwa. The parking lot was busy but not full. Still before opening. There was a line to get tickets and by the time we finished the line was huge.

A little double chair (pair lift 1) opened early so we hopped on that instead of standing in the line at the longer faster plastic covered quad. Hmmm, this is fantastic. The edges were ungroomed and very nice. And all ours. We lapped sweet untracked until the quad opened.

It was a long messy line but we got on. Why wasn't anybody on the hill? We got close to first tracks under the lift! This lift hadn't run yesterday so we got really deep powder. Occasional face shots! We lapped that eighting our own tracks. But the line was bad. So we want back to the first lift.

The trees off this lift were magic. Tolerably spaced and all ours. We got exhausted lapping all this fantastic powder.

The quad line was still big but curiosity got the better of us so we went back. Sharing the quad with a passholder who was pissed at all the people on her private resort, we got the skinny on where everybody was going. Some hike to semi backcountry. We followed her through some fun pitches to a wild trail out. Fun, but a snowplow speed check tweaked my knee and it was time for lunch.

What is it with vending machine cafeterias? I like people better than vending machines. You still have to give the ticket to a person. We are pretty incompetent at ordering in a cafeteria without help - help would help even with the language barrier. Eventually we got food.

Back out for more. By now, it was all gone. Except for the line at the quad. Back to the double to do ballet and imagine bump lines. Poached the kiddie race course! Fun playing but the morning's intense powder workout finally took its toll. Early finish to a fantastic day.

Actually it ranks up there with some of the best powder days ever. And I've been skiing a long time. Japow rules!

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

Niseko Village with typical trees in the foreground. The view out our window at Snow Dog.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

No snow today. So we will play Niseko explorers. Starting from the Niseko Village gondola, we head up. Spectacular views of Mount Yotei and the area as we ride up. A little dip blocks our photo shoot of the volcano but there's a chair to head further up.

Wait, it's a single chair with no back, sides or safety bar. Probably powered by a Model T engine. And it's cold and miserably long. Into the clouds.

Skier's right takes us to a clear photo open. So we head to Annupuri to start the tour from the farthest west resort. Mount Yotei is clouding up but hopefully we'll get good photos. I'll try to post them once I get home.

Annupuri is a nice comfortable pitch, big and wide open hill. All groomed and surprisingly firm for packed powder. Not hard or icy, just firm. The hill was similar in the sunshine to what we remembered from the storm so we headed to the gondola to explore elsewhere.

Huge line at the gondola. So we hop on the comfortable covered quad and race the gondola up. A bit shy of top, the quad drops us to where we get on another chair up. It doesn't go too far, so get on another chair. At least this is above the gondola now but we still need one more chair to escape Annupuri. It's a rickety old chair but at least it's a double with a back and sides.

Niseko United is four resorts that connect at the very top of the mountain. The bases are kilometers apart but a straightforward traverse up top. The rickety chair from Annupuri put us high enough to traverse all the way to the farthest east resort, Hanazono. So that's where we go. It's slightly softer here but still completely groomed. We did find a fun little bump pitch - still firm but quite skiable. Weird wide snowboarder modified bumps but still fun.

There's only one chair at the base of Hanazono so to get the beginner kids up they put them in a rubber boat and towed it up with a snowmobile. Very creative - and fun! We didn't get to try that one though.

We spotted a cute on hill lunch spot - from below. By now we were at Grand Hirafu. Rode a double (most of the chairs there were nice quads) to just below the cafe. People at Niseko are pretty wacky about hiking everything so we were going against the grain and never hiking anything. We skied to the lodge at the base for lunch.

Grand Hirafu has a pretty big base area. It also has nice grooming at the base. I found some nice fresh corduroy on the way into lunch. So we were planning to explore that in the afternoon. But the weather moved in and it started snowing lightly and the visibility went to zero. Our car was at Niseko Village and were worried about closures on the top so we headed up. It took a couple more chairs to get high. Lisa refused the other single chair but a long traverse in the fog got us to a road to Niseko Village.

We took a black diamond marked trail in the fog and broke out into a nice reasonably steep, reasonably soft bump field. Still difficult snowboarder contaminated lines but very fun.

I think we needed one more chair to set a record for most different chairs ever skied in a day but it was late and the onsen was calling. Fun times - even if we didn't hit powder today.

Eric

 

[Eleeski]

Last day, sigh. I'm still jetlagged but everybody else is sleeping in. 5cm of very light snow covers the car. Not enough to reload the powder at Niseko and not enough to affect the drive. Our plan is to drive to Sapporo Kokusai to casually check it out and ski a few laps. A long drive but not outrageous. If we'd gotten going early we could have been reasonably close to opening. But this is not a planned powder day.

We arrive in time for an early lunch. The hill is quite busy but there is a lot of untracked snow still showing. The makeup of the crowd is different from Niseko - few foreigners. Still too many unskilled snowboarders but some decent piste skiers. We head out with the afternoon rush.

Up the Gondora (sic, pictures will follow). There's some nice terrain with some, but not many, tracks that we try to scope out. We decide to warm up on the steep piste. It's quite soft. The edges have occasional bits of very nice powder. My son goes in an opening in the ropes but it's a bit too tracked and the trees are a bit tight so he comes back out. In time for the best bumps of the trip. Soft, steep and not completely ruined by snowboarders. We cruise down and peek at the snow off the groomers. There's no rope and I can see the next piste over so it looks like a few untracked turns might work.

The complete lack of tracks in a very inviting area should have told me something. There was one set of yesterday's buried tracks so l followed them. To a dead end. There was a stream, possibly running, between me and the other piste. My son was pretty mad at me and tried to lead me out without crossing the stream but the trees were too tight. I skied down to the stream, carefully packed a crossing and hiked up and out. He was further down and had a more difficult crossing and hike out. We survived and kept our boots dry, stupid gaijins.

Rode a couple chairs up and spotted a slightly tracked forest (with safe egress). It was soft and fun - a little flat. Excellent powder - especially for the afternoon of a crowded weekend. We lapped that smiling a few times.

We found another steeper forest. It was more tracked but there was fun powder to be had.

By now we were running out of time to make the plane. So one more go at the sweet bumps and Kokusai was a success! Powder and bumps! Japan snow delivered.

Eric

 

[Mattadvproject]

Keep up the good reports Eric! Glad you liked Kokusai.... It's become one of my favorites in Hokkaido and you can get some amazing untouched powder, if you know where to go...... You did put a wry smile on my face, you are the first people I have heard of who are actively looking to ski bumps in Japan! I like it though. There are some great man-made bump lines to be found in most of the bigger resorts in Hokkaido. I remember seeing some very consistent lines in Rusutsu a few years ago and Sahoro always seems to have a couple of lines put in. Niseko would definitely have some. They get so much regular snowfall in Hokkaido that most of the bumps don't get a chance to grow. I think you'd find more bumps in the springtime, but I've not been there that late to check. I'm sure @Jim McDonald has some insight on that?

- Matt

 

[Jim McDonald]

Yeah, by mid March the entire top area of Niseko will probably be getting bumped up, and you can ski right through Golden Week in early May (and later) at a lot of places.