Feb 10th – Back to Mt. Iwate
Frustratingly my knee was not playing ball, so I had to sit this one out. I drove the crew to the resort and they went for a shred. They liked the mountain, but unfortunately it was pretty tracked out in the trees as there had been a few guided groups hitting the trees the day before.
There is a large backcountry bowl at the top of the upper chairlift with Sulphur-producing fumaroles at the bottom. The guys were looking at it but there were massive 10ft cornices with wind-loaded slopes around the top, so they stuck to the trees. That would be a great one to do more exploring in. Will definitely need to check it out next season.
We went to an all you can eat soba noodle house in Morioka that night. It was pretty crazy. They had a person serving you one shot noodle bowls and it was constant. Gary was eating champion at 136 bowls and I managed 104. It was pretty intense, something different but it wouldn't be too keen to do it again. Our table had more than 700 bowls collectively. I'm glad we didn't have to do the washing up.....
Feb 11th – Heading further South
We had planned to go to a different resort across in Akita Prefecture, but we had heard from another guide that it had been pretty tracked out, so we looked for a plan b. I had seen on my Facebook feed that a resort to the south of us was getting a little bit of snow so we decided to go there instead. It would be about a 1.5-hour drive. My knee was feeling a little better so I would try skiing again.
There was a lot of snow on the drive up. The resort was reporting a 3.7m base and they had received 10cm’s of new snow overnight. 10cm’s can be quite a lot more in Japan we have found, so we were excited to see what it would be like. We bought full day tickets and headed to 1 of 2 gondolas. It was the weekend but there were no queues. I had to test my knee first so I stayed on the groomers (which had powder on them). The rest of the group went into the open trees next to the run.
My knee was sore but it was manageable. I let my skis run a little and it held up. I met the group at the gondola. They had found good snow but it was pretty tracked. We went across to a chairlift and found another tree run. This time we found deep, untouched snow on a ridgeline. It was too good to not try it. My knee held up but I was hesitant and a bit in the back seat. I needed to toughen up! We went back to the same ridge for another run and this time I skied more confidently. Dr. Untouched Pow was working!
We found several tree runs and decent snow before stopping for lunch. After lunch the cloud was coming back in. We pushed to the far skier’s right side to another gladed area and without realizing it, left the ski area. Here it was nice and deep. We skied a nice line before finding some powerlines and following them back into the resort. I was tracking our run so we could follow our line and ski it again. We went a little too far to the right and had a bit of sidestep to get back to the powerlines, but we had some nice, deep, untouched lines. It was well-worth the effort.
So, all in all, a great day. I was stoked (but a little sore) to be skiing again and finding the backcountry area, really changed the nature of the resort. This is definitely a resort I would visit again and there’s plenty to still explore. We found an awesome sushi train in Morioka on the way back to our hotel. This one was a little different to the ones we'd been to in Hokkaido. Here the food was all made to order and delivered on a fast conveyor belt direct to the table. They had non-sushi items too and a menu in English, so it made for a good time. Dishes were all very inexpensive at 150 JPY or less.
Bog terrain and cornices to match....
Very tasty looking but very wind-loaded....
The calm before the storm.... I don't think we realized what we were in for.
Continuous bowls of noodles!
If you chew the noodles, then it takes up more room. Don't drink the broth either....
104 bowls later..... needless to say, that was it for noodles for me for the rest of the trip!
Heading south, our next resort....
We found some great inbounds snow....
The big wig-wam for a base lodge.
Peach Fanta! Yum!
Gary finding a nice pillow. We all got the shot....
The snow in the backcountry next to the resort was awesome. No skinning required to get to this line.
Our robo greeter at the sushi train. He had a button for English!
- Matt