Snow in Japan? - March 2007

“Surely not, don’t you mean the artificial ski slope they built”?

One of the fun things I have found since my trip to Japan is how few people know that it snows in Japan, let alone has ski fields or mountains. It is amazing to think that it has the best powder in the world and almost nobody knows.

Where to go?

Typical Hokkaido snow – this is 20 minutes accumulation. You can see through the powder!

Choosing where to go was a nightmare and I kept Uncle Google up late many nights trying to figure it out. There are there hundreds of ski fields and resorts, many of them are nothing more than a single chair up a small hill, most don’t have a website or if they do, it’s in Japanese. On top of this it is often impossible to figure out what ski fields are geographically close together.

I eventually found the Snow Japan website and its associated forums which are devoted to trying to help with this problem. The forums I found the most useful and with the help of some of the forums denizens I decided to go to a ski area in Hokkaido called Niseko.

Nice in Niseko!

The snow in Hokkaido starts life as a frigid wind that sweeps across Siberia and then down across the Sea of Japan, where it sucks up a heap of moisture from the relatively warm water. Once it makes landfall it does what all self respecting clouds do and dumps big time. Being as the wind is still damn cold it makes for very cold and very dry snow. And Hokkaido gets most of it.

Between January and March this is the prevailing wind… Basically it snows all the time. Perfect!

Ski Beaver rips up a fresh line. Click for more crazy pow shots!

A vid of some mellow powder in the middle of the Niseko Resort

For the die hard Steep n Deep skiers Hokkaido is not the place to be, it definitely has the deep, but not so much of the steep. Now I quite like my steep (a la Fernie) so I was a little worried that I would get bored with Niseko. I needn’t have worried. The combination of lack of people skiing off piste, the quantity of new snow and the quality of the snow you could always find fresh lines of light fluffy powder. The funny thing is, the locals regard Niseko’s powder as being wet and heavy. I found this incredibly hard to believe, this was the lightest powder I’d ever skied. However, as I found out later, it was quite true. The snow further inland would hang in the air after you passed, much like smoke.

Japanese English is soooo much fun. This sign has nothing to do with food or bad pop…

Unfortunately for me, I’d done it again, I’d picked a less than ideal season. Hokkaido only got half it’s projected snow fall, they were looking at a record six metres of snow, well down on their usual 12. This meant that there were actually some dry weeks in the Jan to March period. If anyone even thinks the GW words, they’re going to get a slap. It’s not happening, I don’t want to know. I’ve got my head firmly buried in the snow.

I should put this in perspective though. Because of the ticketing prices I was buying daily passes, so when the snow wasn’t exciting I stayed home. In spite of this I still got 50 days in, 45 of which were powder days. It’s all relative, compared with last year Japan had a bad year, but I did enough powder days to make me into a serious powder snob.

The Sapporo Snow Festival was HUGE. There was 3 kilometres of snow and Ice Sculptures. You can see more pictures here and here.

A side effect of having less snow meant that I did a lot more exploring off piste. In Niseko this is relatively safe, it’s not that steep so the risk of avalanches is usually low. Niseko Snow Patrol, like their Canadian counterparts, limit access to off piste areas when it is dangerous. Unfortunately, their decision processes aren’t as good, potentially exposing their punters to unexpected risk. This is one of the amazing contradictions that is Japan – a first world country and they almost don’t have Health and Safety or Liability Laws. Basically if something in Japan looks dangerous it probably is – it is up to you to stay safe. I liked it.

I figured I’d better get some avalanche training. I’d got quite used to Niseko so when the snow stopped for a bunch of days I decided it was time to explore the “real” mountains of Hakuba, where they had real back country. To do this I had to go back through Sapporo, so I decided to time it with the Sapporo Snow festival.

It is a massive festival, so much so that the only bed I could find was in the scungy HI/YHA in the centre of town – at least the location was good! The Snow Festival wasn’t immune from the unseasonable weather either. On the opening day many of the smaller sculptures had started to melt. The festival requires thousands of man hours to put together so it must have been heart breaking for the artists to see their creations dying before the festival even opened.

Happy in Hakuba?

Sapporo isn’t just about snow…

Everyone knows that Japan is ridiculously expensive, it’s just one of those things. The thing is, everyone is wrong. Most prices are quite reasonable. Except for travel. To get to Hakuba I had to get 1000 kilometres to the south and across water. It was hellishly complex, unless one wanted to spend top dollar and even then you couldn’t call it simple. I’m sure the transport companies hire consultants to ensure that none of their services match up with that of any other company. Anti collusion you might say. I eventually stumbled upon another of Japans better kept secrets, a couple of cheap airlines, which helped.

I eventually settled on one plane, two trains and a bus. Easy. Except I got hopelessly lost in Tokyo with 30 minutes to find my bus. More accurately I got lost in Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku Station is big, like really big. London’s “big” stations are pipsqueaks in comparison. Some kind soul had given me a map but it didn’t help a bit. Fortunately the Japanese are a kind race and an elderly gentleman of very limited English spotted my distress and offered to help. He eventually figured out the map and delivered me personally to the bus station and even stayed around to make sure the bus people got it right. In the end it all worked, albeit a little stressfully.

My luggage on the other hand couldn’t have had it easier. In one of the contradictions I love about Japan, I delivered my luggage to the equivalent of an Off Licence/Diary/Corner Shop and for a measly $16 my luggage was whisked off to Hakuba via Japans brilliant Takkyubin service. It couldn’t have been easier. So when I dragged my bedraggled self through the door of the Hakuba Powder Lodge, there was my luggage looking fresh as a daisy to greet me.

Hakuba certainly had real mountains. The main range tops out at around 3000m so it is plenty high. In the Hakuba area there are two main arms of ranges that radiate out from a central peak giving huge scope for great slopes and scary big lines. Because of this Hakuba boasts a number of easily accessed resorts. Here I discovered another of Japans idiosyncrasies – with all these fantastic slopes to choose from the Japanese had chosen – none. All the pistes were on ridge tops or on gentle slopes with most of the interesting stuff roped off. When the resorts were “designed” the overriding design criteria wasn’t what would be fun, but the management of avalanche risk – that is by avoiding the risk altogether. It made for some fairly dull pistes. This situation had a great upside though, hardly anyone skied the really awesome stuff. The back country was steep, deep and oh yeah, it slid regularly. Not for the faint hearted or the unprepared. Unprepared I certainly was, but fortunately not unaware.

The picture doesn’t do this avalanche justice. It was big. Standing at the bottom was scary.

The season here was even worse – they hadn’t had snow in ages and all the snow was hard and fast. Much like a good New Zealand season. I wasn’t happy. I’d turned into a fully fledged powder snob. My skis were of the attitude that they would ski hardpack if they had to, but they sure didn’t have to enjoy it.

So my plan was to get myself trained up and to hit the back country. Once again things didn’t quite go to plan. The next course was a month away and the changeable weather ensured that there often was significant avalanche danger. I got myself some BC gear and managed a few trips, but the lack of snow ensured that the snow conditions were difficult to ski.

One trip was through an avalanche prone area, although anything that could slide had slid and the weather over the previous few days had promoted stability – or so the experts told me. It was damn scary. The entry into the valley was nice, but the further we got down the more avalanche debris we saw – the biggest avalanche must have been 1000m long and had snow boulders the size of cars. The Finns I was with were unfazed by all the carnage and apparent danger. I guess it was all old hat to them – I just hoped they knew what they were doing. What I didn’t know is they had done their home work and Nick the lodge expert had recommended the route and briefed them on what it would be like.

I eventually found an avalanche course that was starting soon. Even better it was back up in Hokkaido, where there was still plenty of snow.

Kurodaki is the home of the best snow I’ve ever seen. It is one of Asahikawa’s backcountry paradises.

Awesome in Asahikawa

The avalanche course was based out of the inland city of Asahikawa. It is a fantastic place, it is city that hasn’t worked out how to attract tourists, yet boasts a number of nearby resorts and great, easily accessible, safe(ish) back country skiing. It also has the best powder in the world.

The course itself was both exciting and sobering. Exciting because it would help me get access to a whole new skiing experience. Sobering because there are very real dangers, not just from avalanches.

As part of the course I got to use touring bindings and skins – these amazing pieces of equipment completely change access to the backcountry. Without them (or snowshoes) you are often struggling through thigh deep snow and moving very slowly. With skis and skins you stay on top of the snow and can easily walk up quite steep slopes. It was a complete eye opener. I think my next season in the snow is going to involve a lot more backcountry touring.

Hiking back up the back side of Kamui

The course took in the back side of the Kamui Links Resort and also the lift less Furanodaki mountain. The snow was really great

It is a funny thing, the snow industry is coming a full circle with increasing numbers of people subscribing to the “Earn Your Turns” theory ie you need to hike somewhere to find the really nice skiing. While you don’t get that many turns in, those you get are great and you don’t have to put up with hardpack powder or queues… Our grandparents would be stunned!

The course was only two days, but seemed much longer – we all learnt so much, but now knew how little we really knew.

After the course was finished it was time to put it all into practice. The course had catered mainly to the snow mad Asahikawa expat locals so it was no trouble to go to a different place every day and carve ourselves some truly fresh lines. I was only there for another week but I did as much quality skiing as I did in my first part of the season.

Asahikawa could be the ideal place to live the snowy dream!

And that was it. What a great way to finish the season.