Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. We hiked up Happo-one, the name of the ridge, from the highest lift of its namesake resort, then dropped into a sun-drenched southern face of Happo-ike, which means Happo Pond.
“We visited Japan for one month and hiked all over the country. While we found many incredible hikes, none matched the views around Hakuba. We hiked past Happo Pond to Mt Karamatsu.”
www.tripadvisor.com
Here’s a topo. The top of the lift is on the left, circled. Mt. Karamatsu is further up, off the map, up the ridge. The chair lifts further away are those of Goryu.
We skied the zone marked by “1”. The top was pretty firm, but gave way to a nice little wind deposited powder stash, leeward of a drift, courtesy of my guide, Raphy. That gave way to a firm surface. All told, it was about 300m to a flatter spot where we had lunch, sitting on a bench, again, courtesy of Raphy. Here’s the view.
In the first few seconds of the video, a snowboarder is seen making some nice turns at the top. Here’s a still.
There’s a photographer standing to the side. Those above and below are hooting and hollering as each comes down. A blast to watch.
If we were at a resort in North America, this, and other faces, both North and South, would be lift served, avy controlled back bowls. I asked Toshi about that, the owner of the ryokan I stay at. A new lift is too expensive. The resort is a community establishment, not a corporate one. That being the case, pretty impressive; and, explains why villagers come together to even pick rocks of the pistes.
After a leisurely lunch, we hiked up for another lap. Same zone, just from a little higher up the ridge. Hard snow again at the top, but became nice corn lower down; beautiful Spring skiing conditions. After that, we did an easy hike up towards the resort, traversing to a lower point on the ridge. After mounting a gentle spine, it was smooth sailing to the top of the resort. Here we are, traversing just below the ridge, with the view of Hakuba Valley unfolding.
The skiing through the resort was super fun, being that I’m an Eastern skier. Hardpack, both groomed and ungroomed with good sized moguls. Lower down, the piste widens. Super glad I cleaned up my carving technique with Stefan. He was on 190 GS skis, 27 meter radius. Now was my chance to do much the same, on 186, 26.5’s. Ok, mine are a 109 waist. But, who needs quick edge to edge to carve long turns? I opened it up and had a blast. Then, I thought, let’s cut a turn off the groomer, in the bumped ungroomed alongside. After all, I’m on a stretch Cadillac right? I learned the hardpack-way why 109’s with touring bindings are not the best choice for higher speed carving in bumps. Very first bump, the outside ski is gone. Ok, we can finish this turn and get back on piste, right? Nope. Next bump, or I think the lip between ungroomed and groomed, the inside ski is gone and I unsuccessfully attempt to skate on the edges of my boots. It’s a yard sale, right in front of Raphy. Hysterical. I’m then looking at my bindings and neither heel have released. I look closer. Ah, being touring bindings, the torque release is at the heel, not the toe; perhaps they did release. I don’t think that detail, nor the wider skis, helped the cause. The rest of the ride down was a blast. We were able to ski all the way down to the gondola. The final stretch was patches of ice, the translucent kind, on grassy piste, not patches of grass on icy piste. Really had to pick our way down and make some well timed turns. Felt just like home.
Besides the skiing, there were other great experiences. What really caught my eye at the ridge was whatabove the Tsukaige resort.
A bit confusing, so, marked by red,
Tsukaige resort
Kami-jo
Norikura, connected to Kami-jo by Denkuhara (remember that)
Koren-gay (spelling?)
and Y Couloir
If you’ve read last year’s Hakuba TR, you’ll know that I was at Denkuhara. The weather was uncooperative. For Monday, I want return and continue to Norikura.
More photos from Happo-one, the ridge.
Y Couloir full frontal
Looking up the ridge,
Can you find the line featured in this trailer?
How did they get up there?
“There may only be a couple days a season where conditions are right to ski Kaerazu, and an attempt at it should be undertaken with extreme caution.”
Every good ski resort has one zone or line that is plain view, and everyone dreams about riding. For Happo-One, Kaerazu is that line. Kaerazu no ken translates to "the mountain of no return," and the skiable zone on it is often referred to as the Kat Face. It is the obvious steep, scary looking...
unofficialnetworks.com
“It is about 3 to 4 hours hiking from the top of the lifts.” But, the gondola opens at 8, then there are two more chair lifts to the top. Raphy informs me that the restaurant at the top of the resort is also an inn. One can overnight there. That settles it. I’m not going to ski Kaerazu. But, next year, conditions permitting, I want to overnight up there, don my headlamp and head out before sunrise. I want to capture what these three, last year, were after,
Today, Espace Diamant, France. Nice powder day. Not a lot of vertical here, but a WHOLE lot of fun!
www.pugski.com
Had I only known. This day would have been a perfect day to do it.
Not much cover on the ridge, but if you have to go, there are facilities,
Raphy skied down a bit, skins on, to recover my pole after it was blown off its perch while I was taking photos.
That was the second time!! The first time, I knocked it down the North face while reaching for my camera.
Yes, it was a great day and I’m hoping to do Norikura, above Tsukaige, the next day.