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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Hey, looks like snow!
What ski is that?

Yep, that was some snow. Found it under the tram line on the way back to the hotel at the end of the day. Fun little line. The skis are from Majesty and that's the Superior LTD for 2020/21. 115mm underfoot, 194cm. I'm liking them so far. Stiff, torsionally really strong and a decent amount of float for Japan. They hold a good edge on the groomers. I took the photo to show these bushes, all covered in some mean thorns. Thankfully there were only a few of them in the trail but we slowed right down to get past them as they would have ripped up our skiwear if we'd have gotten snagged on them. Nasty little bushes! Must be there to stop people shredding pow under the gondola line.....

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

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Love that powder!
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Jan 25th – Skiing Furano again!
We were hopeful of a decent storm the night before, but when we woke up, there was not as much snow as we were hoping for. The winds had been high as well, so there was concern for fresh and reactive wind-slab. We’d need to be careful. I was planning on skiing with my avi gear for the first time but I had to empty most of the contents of my airbag pack (all I had in there was my shovel, probe, skins and a few smaller items, Grant had the medkit and portable rescue sled), to keep the load off my back.

We took the ropeway up around 8:30am and started with some laps on the double chair. You can access some nice powder and decently steep terrain from there. The snow had blown in a bit and was soft and the skiing was fun. It was not quite boot-top deep. The group split up and some stayed on the double chair whilst some were keen to hike up to the Premium Zone. We put the skins on and up we went (I think the skin is lower angle and shorter from the Furano side).

I made a new track to avoid the cornice as move away from the original bootpack that went right underneath the cornice. We had also seen people bootpack across the face earlier and even some people sit and rest under the cornice with their back turned to it. I don’t know if you could increase your risk anymore than that. Crazy, but sadly not unexpected. Not trying to be judgmental, but so many people come to Furano and get into avalanche terrain, without much of a clue…..

Anyway, their choice, hopefully we could stay away from the people doing that. It took about 15 minutes to skin to the top and the prominent ridge that separates Furano from the Kitanominae side. The wind was blowing from behind and to the left and was loading up the right side of the bowl. No one had hit it and it looked like a shallow but soft slab. Eric dropped in first on his board and his turns looked awesome as the snow billowed up all around him. Caroline was next and then it was my turn. I managed to get a few nice cheater faceshots in the boot-top deep powder.

We skied a few nice pitches before hitting the start of the denser trees and our usual traverse out to the left. Then we skied down to the double chair. That was it for me unfortunately as I could feel my back stiffening up. It was about 11:30am so I was happy with 3 hours. I took the double chair back over to the Furano side by myself and then skied a long groomer down to the ropeway. I didn’t want to walk back up to get to the backdoor of the hotel so I took a high-speed quad with bubble back up the mountain to make it back to the hotel. It went for quite a distance. Then I was able to take another long, high-speed groomer back down to the hotel. That was quite fun. I was back by noon.

Then I had some lunch and did my washing. I went out with David to the Doxon brewery and restaurant back in Kitanominae and had a really nice baked pork and curry dish. David had a really nice lamb curry. It’s snowing hard again so hopefully it’s another powder day tomorrow.

Thanks to Grant Nakamura Photography for taking these great photos. These are the pictures from our run through the Premium Zone.....

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A fun run, great to be getting back out into the powder again!

- Matt
 

karlo

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There's no snow at the base in Hakuba.
Welll..., I did ski all the way down to the gondola today. At the bottom, I’d call those patches translucent, rather than transparent ice. It was great, as good as anything at home :). More on the day, above the resort, later.
hike up to the Premium Zone
Wow, sure was worth it.
 
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26th Jan – Kamui Ski Links Powder Day
Fortune favors the bold! That was the motto for the day. Dave and Eric decided to stay on more familiar ground and stay at Furano with Grant, but David was up for a little adventure. Kamui Ski Links, to the north had had decent snow during the last cycle and we decided to roll the dice and go there. David was keen to see somewhere new, but given they only had a 95cm base, we didn’t know how good the skiing was going to be. I was concerned that it still might be too bushy in the backcountry, but we’d give it a go anyway. The other group (Jeremy’s group) was going to head out there too.

It takes about 1 hour to get to Kamui from Furano. The car park was pretty crowded and we could see quite a lot of bamboo sticking up in the trees. It wasn’t looking too good for off-piste skiing on the frontside of the mountain. We bought a 4-hour lift ticket (3,000 JPY or about $28) and headed up the chairs to the looker’s right. The snow was still somewhat fresh on the side of the trail and the groomers were immaculate. There were a lot of ripping Japanese skiers out shredding the groomers (local skiers from Asahikawa most likely) and we did a couple of runs on-piste and I went into the trees a couple of times to check on the cover. My favorite lines we still not ready. No Bueno!

Then we got a call back from Jeremy (my other guide) and his group had been out the gate into the backcountry and were reporting good conditions. David and I raced back to the van to get our avi gear and up the gondola we went (fat skis can actually fit into the racks outside, a nice change from Furano). We headed out and straight into light and dry boot to knee deep snow. It was really nice, probably the best snow of the trip so far (at least for me). We skied a nice long pitch down to the traverse line and the skiing was really good with only a few tracks and deep snow. There were only a few bits of sassa (bamboo) to contend with, coverage was surprisingly good. It was our first-time skiing there at low tide (this time last year they had a 2m base) and I guess those backcountry bowls must get a lot more snow from wind loading, compared to the resort. Good to know.

We did the big traverse out, down to the double chair and then back to the gondola. We headed back for another run and arranged to ski with Jeremy and his group for a run. We lost them though as we were taking photos. The second run was even better than the first, with an even steeper and deeper line just to the skier’s left of our first line. The skiing was really good overall and my expectations had been massively exceeded. My back was starting to get pretty sore again by this stage so it was time to head back to the base lodge for a late lunch.

Finally, after 5 years, it was time for me to take on the “King of Kamui” lunch challenge. This is a double serving of curry, with pork, chicken, hash brown, fired egg, cabbage, pickles and double rice, served on a silver platter. It costs 2,000 JPY of about $18. It’s a massive amount of food. We’ve only had 2 people finish it in the past. This would be dinner as well. It took me quite a while, but I finished it off. That was a lot of food. I won’t need to do that again. Then around 2:30pm, it was time to start heading back.

We stopped in Ashibetsu to check out the small ski area and the very impressive Dai Kannon of Kita no Miyako park, the 10th tallest statue in the world at 88m or 289ft. It’s a massive white statue of Guanyin and had 20 floors with various shrines and places of worship inside. It’s pretty impressive. Then we were back at the hotel by about 4pm and it was time to pass out in a food coma.

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Warming up on a couple of groomers and checking out the snow in the trees on the skier's left side of the mountain. Not quite enough snow to shred the trees in that part of the resort yet.


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Kamui Ski Links


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Heading out the gate into the backcountry, there was surprisingly a lot of snow. Not bad for the weekend.


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@UGASkiDawg finding a nice line


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The "King of Kamui"; a double serving of curry, rice, cabbage, pickles, fried pork, chicken, egg and a potato cake. Heart stopping stuff!


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Kamui Ski Links



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The statue in Ashibetsu near the ski area. Not everyday you see that!



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Thanks to @UGASkiDawg for this shot of me. In deep for a one turn Insta-banger! I could be a ski pro.....


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There's the evidence. King of Kamui challenge accepted and defeated. Hoisting my platter on completion. I don't feel so good.....

- Matt
 
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Love that powder!
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27th Jan – Rest Day
After 3 days of skiing reasonably hard, my back was pretty sore again, so I took a rest day (David did too) and Grant took Dave and Eric to Kamui. David and I explored the arts and craft village called the Ningle Terrace next to the hotel. It’s a quaint little series of cabins in the woods connected by a walkway. There you can find local arts and crafts created and sold by local people from Furano. I was able to finish off my present shopping for my wife. We went into Furano and tried out some Yakitori restaurants for dinner.

28th Jan – Leaving Furano and Skiing Mt. Racey
Sadly, it was time to leave Furano. We had to be back in Chitose that night. It’s somewhat convenient (and fun) to hit up Mt. Racey ski area in Yubari on the way to Chitose, to break up the drive. It’s about 2 hours to get to Yubari. Yubari was once a thriving city with over 120,000 people during the coal mining heydays and when the government started to shut down the coal-fired powerstations in the 1980’s, the town declined massively. Now only 8,000 people live there and the population is aging massively. You can read an interesting article about Yubari here - https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/aug/15/yubari-japan-city-learns-die-lost-population-detroit.

The ski area still provides jobs to locals and is starting to create some international interest. I recall seeing an article in Ski Magazine about Yubari in 2018 - https://www.skimag.com/editors-choice/the-bear-and-the-melon and then my favorite video is of Melon Kuma, the mascot who is big bear with a melon on his head. We were there at Mt. Racey in 2018 when they were filming for Melon Kuma - .

It was a beautiful bluebird day when we pulled up just before noon. We purchased a 4 hour ticket for about $38 and then went to rip some groomers on our fat skis. The base for Racey was only listed at 50cm’s but some of the trees were surprisingly well filled-in. I would have gone in for a try but no one else wanted to push it. Fair enough on the last day.

The groomers were still skiing really nicely and we had several high-speed laps. Racey has a fast gondola with room for fat skis on the outside. We were straight on each time so we got quite a few runs in. We even did some bumps on the zipper line bump course under one of the runs (fun on 115mm underfoot, 194cm fat skis with touring bindings on). My back didn’t thank me for that but I was having too much fun.

We stopped for lunch around 2pm and then had a couple more runs, finishing up around 3:30pm. Then I drove the group around the old part of town to see the old coal mine and then the partially abandoned high street with all the old (hand-painted) movie posters left over on the sides of some of the buildings, from the Yubari International Movie Festival. Then it was about 1.5 hours to get to Chitose and settle into the hotel. We went out for Indian food at the Raj restaurant and had a couple of nice curries. The owner, Mr. Sammy, is an absolute gentleman and he even gave us a lift back to our hotel when we finished. Amazing food and hospitality. Big thanks to the Raj restaurant in Chitose!

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The Ningle Terrace at the New Furano Prince Hotel


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Trying out some breads at the local bakery


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View from my room as I packed up in the morning


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Heading to Mt. Racey we took a quick stop to photograph the mountains outside of Furano. We don't always get this view


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The crowded slopes of Mt. Racey!


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The posse!


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Old film posters painted on the sides of buildings on the Yubari mainstreet


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Not seen this photo before


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- Matt
 
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Love that powder!
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Jan 29th – Travel to Hakodate
We dropped off the guests at the airport before 9am and then hit the road to head south, down to the Hakodate area. I’ve never been there before and we have 3 days to explore the area and get some more skiing in. Then we will take the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Shin-Hakodate Station to Shin-Aomori Station, passing under the Sea of Japan on the 1st February to start our Tohoku adventure. Should be a fun time.

On the way to Hakodate, we stopped off at Sun Laiva ski area (many different spellings), near Noboribetsu. It was about a 1.5-hour drive from Chitose and we had to be diverted off the freeway as it was closed for a section. We drove along the ocean road and that was pretty cool to see. It was snowing hard with high winds and rough seas. The waves were crashing over the breakwaters and it was a powerful scene. We headed up into the mountains and finally came to Sun Laiva resort.

It’s a small resort with only 3 chairs, but the upper chair (we found out) is not working. That limits the vertical considerably (it was a healthy 690m vertical before that) and you can’t reach the upper part of the mountain without skinning. Looking at Google Earth, there is some tasty terrain and double the vertical up higher, plus plenty of open areas down lower in the trees. The terrain is very steep as well. Unfortunately, with only a 50cm base down lower, it was completely choked by sassa grass in the trees, so off-piste shenanigans were out. Looking at the historical snow depths, this is actually a typical snow year, so they must not get much snow in general. I don’t think the trees and open areas next to the upper chair would ever be skiable.

We did a couple of runs up the main chair enjoying soft but heavy powder. There was only a handful of other people out skiing, oddly enough, there were two more gaijin’s out skiing (they seemed to have a local Japanese guide with them). We stopped for a quick lunch (really tasty food and all under $10, I had a nice Katsudon) and then headed back up for more. We had our avi gear and touring setups with us this time so took the chair up again and headed to the left, out of sight of the lift shack (who knows if uphill is allowed at this resort, but we’d seen old tracks up high and figured if we kept to ourselves, then we should be ok) to put the skins on. There is an old ski run that we took to skin up; it was pretty mellow at first, but then there was a 100m section that was really steep.

The snow felt really hollow and punchy probing around with our poles, so we decided to dig a pit and do some stability tests. It was about 1m deep and there were several layers with some crusts and facets growing underneath. It was a pretty complex snowpack, one of the worst I’ve seen. We did a couple of ECT (Extended Column Tests) and managed to get an ECTP24 on the second go. It propagated across the entire block. No Bueno. We’d have to be careful on the way up this steep face and went one at a time, hugging the left side, next to the trees as close as we could. The track was brutally steep with some nasty kickturns, just to stay off the main face. It was energy sapping but we made it up to the top, then the track mellowed out substantially and it was very cruisy.

We skinned over to the top of the abandoned chair and had a quick look around. The run off the other side looked a little better, so we would take
that line down. We transitioned and then got ready to ride down. I filmed Jeremy with my helmet cam and then we skied the steeper pitch one at a time, to do some filming. This side was definitely the better to ski and the pitch was a lot more consistent than the way we came up (which was flat, then steep, then flat at the top). There were bushes sticking out but the snow was soft (heavy powder) and the coverage decent. We didn’t hit any rocks or anything like that and enjoyed fun, bouncy turns on the way down. All in all, it had been a great little adventure. I appreciated that we had to earn our turns and also plan carefully our route up and tread lightly. We were rewarded with some fun skiing. If the chair had been open up top, then we wouldn’t have had this adventure.

Then it was another 3.5 hours (more freeway closures) to get to Hakodate, much longer than the 2 hours that Google maps had suggested. It was raining hard as we drove in. Just a word of caution, it cost us more then 6,000 ($60) JPY in tolls, to get there. That was a bit of a shock. We stopped into a weird (but decent) Japanese-American burger joint for a quick bite and then settled into the Hakodate-Onuma Prince Hotel. The first question they asked us at check-in was “have you been in Wuhan, China recently?” Err, nope!

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A massive bear has taken over the roof of this building on the way to Sunlaiva resort!


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Wild seas on the way to Noribetsu


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Different scenery to what we normally see. We were thankful for the diversion.


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Mini Disneyland


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Sanlaiva resort. Only a handful of people and then all the school kids. They were beginners and weren't riding the lift we were on, so no lift lines.


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The double chair we took, freshies on the groomers. Too much bamboo in the trees.


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Jeremy in powtown


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Lunch was nice. No one in the cafeteria. Katsudon for me and Katsu curry for Jeremy.


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Skinning up into the abandoned part of the ski area. In hindsight, it was good that it was closed as we got guaranteed freshies. This is the steep part that was a little suspect. We dug a pit, performed stability tests and hugged the left hand side. The skin track was pretty straight and nasty.


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I don't know if that meant I should do the pizza or I shouldn't? Either way, time to practice!


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Top of the abandoned lift and the end of our skin.


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Time to enjoy the down.


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Still a few shrubs sticking out but we didn't hit anything underneath and the skiing was quite nice. The adventure was worth it.


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if only this place got more snow and they had that top lift running. Some great open terrain up high and quite steep. Historical data showed that they don't seem to get enough snow for the trees to ever get good enough. Shame.....

- Matt
 
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Jan 31st – Cultural Day in Hakodate
We were going to try skiing at the Niyama Kogen ski area, but with a lower altitude than Hakodate Nanae and less vertical and fewer lifts, no one was feeling inspired to go with the lack of snow, so we took a cultural day to Hakodate instead. After a bit of research, it seems that there is quite a bit to see. I followed the suggestions of this website - https://www.hakodate.travel/en/top7 and their recommendations for the top 7 things to see in Hakodate.

Hakodate is about a 40-minute drive from our hotel and our first stop was the Morning Markets. Here you can find all the fresh seafood on offer that Hakodate is famous for. There are places where they cook the fresh seafood straight up on grill for you, but it was still early and no one was in the mood for seafood just yet. All of the stalls and the hustle and bustle was quite exciting though and this is something worth seeing.

Next up and not far away from the Morning Market are the Red Brick Warehouses in the Bay Area where there are old warehouses near the port that have been converted into modern shops and restaurants. There are some cool things to see. My favorite was the Samurai store with swords and armor for sale. There’s also a chopstick store selling custom chopsticks and high-end sticks for more than $160 USD a pair. They were pretty fancy but a little excessive for me. There’s a brew hall pub and lot’s of eateries and knick-knack stores. It’s worth a visit.

We should have gone to the Motomachi District next (we hit that later) but instead we went further down the coast to the Yunokawa Onsen (hot-spring) area. I’d heard that there are snow monkey’s who have their own onsen at the Botanical Tropical Gardens. Unfortunately, as excited as I was to see this, it was a major disappointment and I would not recommend going to see it. The monkeys are in a large open, concrete enclosure with a hot-spring pool at one end. The monkey’s do use the pool, but the enclosure is devoid of any semblance of natural habitat. I was quite sickened by it.

You can buy a bag of food to feed the monkey’s and tourists throw the food down to the animals below. Some of the monkey’s had massive distended stomachs and obviously no thought has been given to their welfare or enrichment of their lives. Some of the monkey’s had lost their fur but allegedly this happens if they spend too long in the pools. The fur grows back if they spend more time out of it (some of the monkey’s did have full fur and looked In good health). It reminded me of an old zoo enclosure from the 1980’s. I found it all to be in poor taste.

We had a quick look around the indoor enclosure of the botanical gardens and then got the heck out of there. Next, we looked around for Ashiyu footbaths, but couldn’t find the one we were looking for. Instead, we had a really nice bowl of ramen noodles at a very popular restaurant (Ichimonji) near the beach. Then we did the drive back to the Motomachi area which as it turns out, is right next to the Morning Markets and the Red Brick Warehouses.

The Motomachi area is famous for it’s mix of old colonial style housing, traditional Japanese buildings and some churches and shrines. This is all at the foot of Mt. Hakodate. We walked around and checked out some of the beautiful old buildings and then saw signs for the cable car up Mt. Hakodate so we decided to head up there for a look (not in our original plans). That cost 1,500 JPY and took 3 minutes to get to the top. A lot of people come at nighttime for the amazing views of the city, but the views during the day, even with all the snow and clouds around, was still pretty spectacular. I was happy with my $14 investment.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the Goryokaku Fort and the observation tower as we had to head to the Shin-Hakodate train station to purchase our tickets for the Shinkansen to Tohoku for the next day. The station is out in a pretty rural area, which was surprising, but made finding it and parking very easy. We purchased our tickets for the 1 hour ride (reserved seats in regular class) for about $70. We asked for seats close to the luggage storage area so we could get our luggage on and off easier. We got back early and later I had a relaxing onsen at the hotel. It was a great way to finish the day (plus we had some dinner snacks from Lawsons convenience store). Looking forward to heading to Aomori tomorrow.

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- Matt
 

James

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20200129_111747-jpg.91881


Send that to Quentin Tarantino. Maybe he’ll make a Japanese “Fargo”.
So weird, as are many of the other images. Pretty cool.
 
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20200129_111747-jpg.91881


Send that to Quentin Tarantino. Maybe he’ll make a Japanese “Fargo”.
So weird, as are many of the other images. Pretty cool.

I have a Quentin Tarantino story about Yubari, for you @James . I'll post it when I have a moment......
 
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Whoops, I done gone messed up...... I missed the 30th Jan's report on Hokodate Nanae ski resort. Oh my!

30th Jan – Exploring Hakodate Nanae ski area
Unfortunately, it had been raining for most of the night and the ski resort is only a couple of hundred meters up higher than our hotel, so expectations were low for an epic powder day. It’s about a 20-minute drive to get to Hakodate ski area from our hotel and the drive was beautiful, going past all the lakes of the Onuma Quasi-National Park. We arrived at a large carpark that only had about 50 cars or so in it. It was around 10am. There was a modern gondola and a double chair at the bottom.

We decided on a 5-hour pass for about 4,000 JPY or about $38 USD. The gondola takes you to the top and was a long ride, probably about 15 minutes or so. It had been snowing hard at the top but it was wet and heavy. We found plenty of untouched snow at the sides of the run as most people were staying on the groomed runs. We could see some good-looking trees around but they still had too much bamboo and brush sticking out (Hakodate is way down it’s average with only a 60cm base). Still, the purple (the steepest) runs hadn’t been groomed and had plenty of soft snow on them. It was cruisy, fun skiing.

I chatted with some friendly ski patrollers who wanted to know where we were from. They spoke a little English. They were nice. We only did about 4 runs and finished with lunch at the base restaurant. Food was standard fare; inexpensive and tasty, just how we like it. The snow was very sticky down at the bottom and with no rad tree skiing or blower pow to be had, we called it a day early.

On the way back to the hotel we went for a walk around one of the lakes in the Onuma Quasi-National Park. It was free to enter and we enjoyed a pleasant walk around the lake. I loved the tiny tree islands and if the visibility had been good, there would have been stunning views of Hokkaido Koma-ga-take volcano and Mt. Yokotsu. We had a lovely dinner that night at a noodle restaurant that was super cheap, only 600 JPY for a big bowl of noodles, meat and broth. The Udon with chicken was really good, some of the best Udon I have had. I asked for a beer and they didn’t have any in stock, so one of the ladies drove to a shop (or a vending machine) and bought a couple for me. How nice!

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Send that to Quentin Tarantino. Maybe he’ll make a Japanese “Fargo”.
So weird, as are many of the other images. Pretty cool.

So, that Quentin Tarantino story for you @James ...... Tarantino was at the Yubari International Film Festival in 1993 and he wrote some of the screenplay for Pulp Fiction when he was staying in Yubari. Then in his 2003 movie Kill Bill Vol 1, he named one of the characters after the town (Gogo Yubari, the school girl bodyguard of Lucy Liu's character, O-Ren Ishii). There you go!

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And that was the end of the Hokkaido adventure for 2020. If I have time, I'll add some video here later, but now it's onto the Tohoku trip.....

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Time for some quick clips from Japan. As you've read during my blog, it wasn't the usual Japow conditions. Allegedly, Japan was having it's worse season for 60 years. Well, I guess there's bad and then there's bad for Japan, because the snow was still pretty good in my opinion. I missed about half the ski days due to injury, so I only have a fraction of the footage I normally have. But this will give you a feel for what we found.

This first run is from my first day back in the pow at Sapporo Kokusai on January 19th. It's amazing how different this run looks like with close to 2m less snow. The run doesn't look the same. There's plenty of bushes still sticking out and the run is a lot mellower (less snow at the top to create more pitch) and it's shorter. I barely recognized it. It looks so much lower angle in this video. It was still nice skiing though and good to be out in the pow again.
MAJESTY SKIS America, BAIST Gloves, Glide Nano, Ridge Merino, Xevo Optics, Carv


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Highlights from Furano on January 25th, skiing in the Premium Zone. Only a couple of inches of new snow had fallen, but the wind had blown plenty more in at the top. Thankfully there was no hard-slab and the skiing was great!


- Matt
 

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So, that Quentin Tarantino story for you @James ...... Tarantino was at the Yubari International Film Festival in 1993 and he wrote some of the screenplay for Pulp Fiction when he was staying in Yubari. Then in his 2003 movie Kill Bill Vol 1, he named one of the characters after the town (Gogo Yubari, the school girl bodyguard of Lucy Liu's character, O-Ren Ishii). There you go!

- Matt
Hah! Fascinating.
 
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Highlights from our day skiing at Kamui on January 26th. Conditions were definitely better than expected! A fun day with @UGASkiDawg .


- Matt
 

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