Jan 24th - Sidecountry Bliss!
I think the 23rd was probably a travel day as we transitioned from Furano back down to Otaru, so the guys didn't want to ski that day. On the 24th, we took the 45 minute drive out to one of my favorite resorts in Hokkaido. Surprise surprise, it had snowed again! (I think the best snow for the entire 4 sessions in Japan was in Hokkaido during this session). We took the gondola up for a couple of nice laps in the sidecountry bowls, just outside of the resort. The tracks hadn't quite filled in but it was nice skiing and the access was really easy. Already the bang for the buck was really high.
Then it was time to put on the skins and head further out. There was already a track in place for most of the way but we got off it towards the end. I thought the large open face would be good for our first line and then we could put the skins back on for the easy 10-minute skin back up to our favorite ridgeline. Sure enough, the face was untouched and we had 25 quality turns. The snow was light and dry and boot-top deep. Then it was an easy skin back up higher to the ridgeline for the main course.
Surprisingly, we were first onto the ridge and we had some lovely turns on top of it before heading left down onto a stepper face before heading back to the right to regain the mellower part of the ridge. We skied some really nice sections before hitting the creek bed and the slightly dodgy traverse line back out of the drainage. Ducking under the tree at the start, with the exposed creek below, is always a challenge for a 6ft3 inflexible person such as myself! Thankfully no one went for a swim and we made it back to the resort for tea and crumpets. Another quality day in the bag. This is what the backcountry part (left our the sidecountry bowls at the start of the day) looked like. This was one of the better days of skiing for the session.....
- Matt
I think the 23rd was probably a travel day as we transitioned from Furano back down to Otaru, so the guys didn't want to ski that day. On the 24th, we took the 45 minute drive out to one of my favorite resorts in Hokkaido. Surprise surprise, it had snowed again! (I think the best snow for the entire 4 sessions in Japan was in Hokkaido during this session). We took the gondola up for a couple of nice laps in the sidecountry bowls, just outside of the resort. The tracks hadn't quite filled in but it was nice skiing and the access was really easy. Already the bang for the buck was really high.
Then it was time to put on the skins and head further out. There was already a track in place for most of the way but we got off it towards the end. I thought the large open face would be good for our first line and then we could put the skins back on for the easy 10-minute skin back up to our favorite ridgeline. Sure enough, the face was untouched and we had 25 quality turns. The snow was light and dry and boot-top deep. Then it was an easy skin back up higher to the ridgeline for the main course.
Surprisingly, we were first onto the ridge and we had some lovely turns on top of it before heading left down onto a stepper face before heading back to the right to regain the mellower part of the ridge. We skied some really nice sections before hitting the creek bed and the slightly dodgy traverse line back out of the drainage. Ducking under the tree at the start, with the exposed creek below, is always a challenge for a 6ft3 inflexible person such as myself! Thankfully no one went for a swim and we made it back to the resort for tea and crumpets. Another quality day in the bag. This is what the backcountry part (left our the sidecountry bowls at the start of the day) looked like. This was one of the better days of skiing for the session.....
- Matt