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International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) 2023 Hokkaido Trip Report

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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

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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
 
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26th Jan - Mt. Notgonnatellyou

It just goes to show, you can have a lot of fun at a tiny resort if you can find places where there are few Westerners. This was footage from the 26th January, from a small resort in our Otaru zone. They have 1 cable car, plus 2 chairs and only 300m vertical, but it's steep and it's mostly fall-line skiing without big long traverses.

We'd had more snow and the sun was out. We'd skied a lot at our other favorite resort, so we thought we'd try Mt. Notgonnatellyou as it was so close to our hotel.
There were a few other Westerners that day (including our other group), but we moved fast in order to stay ahead of people and we had quite a few runs where we were the first ones in. It was an awesome day, with a ton of faceshots.

It was hard putting this video together as I had to leave a lot of footage out, but I think it's one of my favorite clips of the season. If you watch till the end, there's some bonus footage of me hitting a small tree at the end. That sucker left quite the knot on my shin. Thankfully no major damage was done and I lived to ski another day. Huzzah! 1 more video to go, then I'll start adding video to our Tohoku blog.....




- Matt
 

James

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26th Jan - Mt. Notgonnatellyou

It just goes to show, you can have a lot of fun at a tiny resort if you can find places where there are few Westerners. This was footage from the 26th January, from a small resort in our Otaru zone. They have 1 cable car, plus 2 chairs and only 300m vertical, but it's steep and it's mostly fall-line skiing without big long traverses.

We'd had more snow and the sun was out. We'd skied a lot at our other favorite resort, so we thought we'd try Mt. Notgonnatellyou as it was so close to our hotel.
There were a few other Westerners that day (including our other group), but we moved fast in order to stay ahead of people and we had quite a few runs where we were the first ones in. It was an awesome day, with a ton of faceshots.

It was hard putting this video together as I had to leave a lot of footage out, but I think it's one of my favorite clips of the season. If you watch till the end, there's some bonus footage of me hitting a small tree at the end. That sucker left quite the knot on my shin. Thankfully no major damage was done and I lived to ski another day. Huzzah! 1 more video to go, then I'll start adding video to our Tohoku blog.....




- Matt
131B9AC6-883B-4F76-B772-01A3C8EAFE62.jpeg
Is that a glide crack on the left?
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

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View attachment 201130
Is that a glide crack on the left?

Yes, but the big one is below and that stretches the entire way across the slope. At the 0:43 mark you see me jump down one part and then maneuver around another part. It's edited out, but we have a quick re-group just below the glide crack so everyone can make it through safely (0:49). We skied the same run again on the next run, but skied it further to the right. At the 2:00 mark, you'll see the glide crack below. It's a big one. This crack is here every year (until it gets filled in again with snow) and you have to watch out for it. It definitely pays to know where these cracks are!

- Matt
 

dbostedo

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Yes, but the big one is below and that stretches the entire way across the slope. At the 0:43 mark you see me jump down one part and then maneuver around another part. It's edited out, but we have a quick re-group just below the glide crack so everyone can make it through safely (0:49). We skied the same run again on the next run, but skied it further to the right. At the 2:00 mark, you'll see the glide crack below. It's a big one. This crack is here every year (until it gets filled in again with snow) and you have to watch out for it. It definitely pays to know where these cracks are!

- Matt
I know nothing, but I thought slopes with glide cracks are to be avoided, avy-wise. If it's not too much to ask, how do you make a determination on whether it's OK to ski that slope? (Or are the cracks just not as big a deal as I may be thinking?)
 
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Mattadvproject

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I know nothing, but I thought slopes with glide cracks are to be avoided, avy-wise. If it's not too much to ask, how do you make a determination on whether it's OK to ski that slope? (Or are the cracks just not as big a deal as I may be thinking?)

Glide cracks occur through the constant effects of gravity, slope angle and potentially some kind of gliding surface between the snow and the ground. I suspect either sassa grass (bamboo) or some kind of thermal structure like a volcanic vent, as the gliding agent. The snow on this steep slope is slowly getting pulled down the hill. Eventually, the slab starts to break away and the crack widens.

This is a gradual process. A crack will form and gradually make it's way across the slope if the slab slowly continues to creep down the hill. If the slab is still supported by the slope underneath and does not fail catastrophically if there is no weak layer/point of failure. Glide cracks are normally a sign of strength, not weakness in a snowpack (otherwise the slope probably would have avalanched). Here's a great article that explains more about glidecracks - https://henrysavalanchetalk.com/glide-cracks-mean-snowpack-stability/. The major concern is skiing into one of these cracks. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to hang around in an area that has glide cracks, I'm going to move through as quickly and as safely as I can and avoid them if possible, staying off to the side and going one at a time.

There's several spots at the resorts we go to in Japan, that consistently have glide cracks. The challenge is to know where they are and try to remember them in the future. This particular glidecrack is always present on this slope in the early season. Patrol are always concerned about this slope, not necessarily because they think it's going to slide, but more for the danger of someone unaware that might ski/ride into it at speed. Later in the season, the snowfalls become too consistent and the crack fills in again, Normally that happens after I'm out of the area but I have been there at least a couple of times when the crack is filled in by late January. Then it's just a regular run again and patrol aren't worried about it.

Does that all make sense?
 
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Thread Starter
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Jan 27th - Bluebird Powder Day

Our final day of skiing with the session 2 group was a lovely one. The sun was out, the winds were down and it was a beautiful day. Temps were warming and there were definitely concerns about the potential for new wind slabs, but thankfully nothing was moving that I tested.

The guys were only up for one lap, so we did the usual 30 minute skin out to the big face and then skins back on for the climb back to the ridgeline and a quality ski back down. It didn't disappoint!




So that was it for the skiing for the session 2 crew. The next day we did some cultural things and made our way back to Chitose for the last night. Next, a few of us headed down to Hakodate with a stop in Rusutsu for some skiing. I got some footage of that but it's not worth seeing as it was a weekend and it all got tracked up real fast. I think we'll take this party to Tohoku and post all of the video from that trip as we had some great days there.

That's it for Hokkaido 2023. It was great to be back finally and I am planning on doing it all again next winter. Thanks to all for following the adventure!

- Matt
 
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Thread Starter
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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2023 Hokkaido Highlight Video

My final post for this blog..... I just put together an highlight's video for our 2023 trips to Hokkaido. Here's the best bits.....




Plans for 2024 have been finalized. If anyone wants any information, you can find it here. Thanks to everyone for following along with the blog and for all the comments and questions. I'm looking forward to returning to Hokkaido in January 2024, especially now that Japan has removed all covid-related travel restrictions. It will be a lot easier to go there now. Can't wait! Cheers all.

- Matt
 

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