 Poster: A snowHead
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Just a few thoughts on the "Ultimate Pow" trip I went on from 11th-21st January 2016. We arrived a couple of days early and departed a couple of days later in order to maximise our skiing time over two weeks.
We started in Furano and on a semi-flexible itinerary skied at Furano, Asahidake, Tomamu, Teine Highland, Sapporo Kokusai, Kiroro, Rusutsu and Niseko over 14 days of skiing. I say semi-flexible because our accommodation was already booked (Furano, Tomamu, Sapporo, Niseko) but we had a choice of various different places to ski depending on the expected weather and snow conditions, as long as the drive wasn't more than a couple of hours from the accommodation. This did lead to some days with 4+ hours in the van. It sometimes seemed the wrong decision was made - eg we went to Asahidake on a very bad weather day and could not do much, while the following day was very clear even up in the alpine - but hindsight is a wonderful thing I guess. Undoubtedly the guides knew best when it comes to the local weather!
I can't fault the Black Diamond operation, everything was very well organised. It was great skiing at so many different places as I now have a good basis for doing an independent trip around Hokkaido, having skied off piste areas in and around all the above resorts.
First day in Furano - a good introduction to Hokkaido snow:
Out of 14 days skiing, I would estimate 6 were epic, very deep powder days, as the photo above. 4 were powder days but not bottomless (would equal a good day in Europe), 2 were average/tracked and 2 were very poor days due to the wind hammering everything. We did find that a big dump is not necessary for bottomless/faceshot skiing. In Furano there was probably 15-20cm fresh on the first day but because the snow underneath was so cold and light, and not hugely tracked out, it was pretty much a complete reset. EDIT: The Snow-Japan report for Furano on 10th January puts only 5cm fresh in the village with 11cm-9cm-5cm-5cm fresh the previous few days. 
We felt Niseko was the worst place we visited, it's massively busy and does not feel much like Japan. I like the terrain at Niseko but would not rush to return there during busy season. Black Diamond Lodge however is very well run, very organised and on top of things. If I were back in Niseko i'd try to stay here.
The trip actually included a lot of touring, much more than I expected. Every day we did some skinning, and had a couple of days almost entirely skinning. Make sure your equipment is up to standard! The group was roughly split into two with one half more keen on touring while the other half would do more lift-accessed stuff.
I think the trips from BD Tours are a great option, especially for independent travellers, people not familiar with the area and people wanting to remove the hassle from their trip. If I go back (hopefully next winter!) i'll seek to get a small group together, hire a vehicle and move around independently using the knowledge i've gained from this trip and other people.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great to hear it all went so well.
Hope to see you on Fantasy Island next winter 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Great report makes me want to go back.
| musehead wrote: |
| We felt Niseko was the worst place we visited |
Which area was your favourite?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@musehead, nice!
I did the PowerTrip with them in 2014, and fully agree with you re. BD Tours, Niseko, and BD Lodge.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@hd, Furano was maybe my favourite area. We did have some of the best snow there so that might cloud my judgement! It has some good off-piste terrain easily accessible from the lifts, a sensible out of bounds policy (ie it's no longer banned, but you need to fill in a form with your details), and the ski lifts are next to a proper Japanese town. It was far less busy than Niseko, we didn't have much competition for fresh tracks. We may have been lucky with the snow conditions as central Hokkaido does get less snow than the area around Niseko, and our guide was telling us that the depth of base in Furano was already far better than anything he saw there last season.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Thanks for the trip report @musehead.
I'm doing the Feb Ultimate Pow trip with BD so have a couple of Qs!
I'm renting a split board from them, but they said to also take my own as there will be days when I would prefer to ride that. Sounds like if you did touring every day then I won't have much use for my board? If its going to be 95% touring might leave mine at home and save on the luggage faff.
What did you do in the evening? All eat together or split off into smaller groups?
What did you do for lunch? Take a packed lunch or stop in a restaurant/cafe?
How much do you think you spent on lunch/dinner/misc expenses? Trying to work out how much cash I need to exchange.
Did you do anything like go to an onsen or similar?
Were there any boarders in your group? Was the guide considerate to them i.e. not stopping on flat bits etc
Wish I was arriving early now to get few days extra in, but I was worried that I would get over excited and tire myself out before the trip even started 
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@kat.ryb, answers from the PowerTrip, which might well be different, but hopefully helpful!
We did quite a few bootpacks, but no skinning (despite guide having a split board). Guess it will depend on conditions.
Slept a lot! Lots of skiing, lots of driving. Normally we'd eat together, once or twice went out for a couple of beers, but the days were bell to bell and pretty full on! BIG night out in Sapporo on the last night though! We'd split into smaller groups, and we ended up meeting some big shot Tokyo businessmen (and his 'girls') who wanted to show us around and buy all our drinks in exchange for being told he looked like David Beckham... Crazy and utterly bizarre night, but it's a super fun city!
We ate in restaurants. Can't really remember costs (was two years ago now), but similar to in Austria, cheaper if you go for ramen etc.
Yep, 'wild' onsen in the woods near Furano while it was snowing! Really cool.
No boarders amongst the guests, but two (of three) guides were boarders. No issues at all there (also in terms of them negotiating flats and traverses as well as skiers - mine occasionally brought out a pair of ski poles).
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Thanks @clarky999, super helpful.
Hope we go to the wild onsen
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@kat.ryb,
Some of the Americans bought two pairs of skis but they didn't get much use out of their non-touring pair. The other group did less touring than ours though, so you might want to bring the other board if you think you'd end up in the less touring oriented group (also I guess the split of groups depends on how many/who is on your trip)
Mostly we ate together but sometimes split into smaller groups. Long days and jetlag pretty much had me asleep by about 9pm most evenings! Some of the others had a bit of a night out in Sapporo although nothing like the experience @clarky999 had!
Some days for lunch we bought food and snacks from a convenience store in the morning and carried it around with us. Most days we went to a mountain restaurant/food hall in the ski resort though.
I'd say lunch in a restaurant/food hall was about 1000 yen, not including drinks, for a big bowl of ramen or Japanese curry or similar. From convenience store half that. Dinner was similar apart from the last night when we all went somewhere more expensive, which was 3500 yen for all your can eat/drink in 2 hours. Beer in most places seemed to be about 400-500 yen per pint but I didn't drink much at all.
We went to 2 onsens, one near Kiroro (it also had a Nepalese curry restaurant which was excellent!) and one near Rusutsu. Both were very cool and picturesque - hot steaming outdoor pools surrounded by rocks and snow. The first one had a couple of Japanese guys absolutely covered in tattoos, very unusual in Japan as they're associated with the Yakuza.
We had a boarder but he was in the other group to me, so did less skinning. We had a tail guide with our group sometimes who was a boarder and she didn't seem to have any issues.
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Cheers @musehead. I will continue on with taking my normal board just in case.
Hopefully there will be another boarder, I don't want to be the only one!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@musehead or @clarky999 - do you know what the morning coffee situation was like? Is there decent coffee with breakfast? If not and I took stuff with me could you get hot water for a thermos? Were there tea/coffee making facilities in the rooms at all?
Thanks!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@kat.ryb, I think everywhere we stayed had coffee with breakfast but not sure if it was decent, probably instant coffee (I don't really drink it myself). I think everywhere we stayed had either a kettle in the room, or a hot water dispenser in a communal area. Loads of types of green tea available everywhere if you're into that. The hot drinks vending machines everywhere are pretty cool.
When does your trip start? Conditions continued to look fantastic the last two weeks (i've followed all the resorts we visited on Facebook!) but there looks to be a warm snap with some unusual rain occurring on the 13th.
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there looks to be a warm snap with some unusual rain occurring on the 13th.
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Snowboarding starts on 18 Feb so hopefully usual cold and snow will have resumed by then...! It would be JUST my luck to go to Japan and get rain.
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I think everywhere we stayed had either a kettle in the room, or a hot water dispenser in a communal area
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Perfect, I shall take my own single-cup coffee filters then.
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You know it makes sense.
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@kat.ryb, plenty of instant coffee (I think - can't remember anything notable!), can't really remember what the rooms had though. You should be able to get hot water easily everywhere.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@kat.ryb, Looks like a ~20C temperature drop from the 13th to the 16th so I think you'll be fine 
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Looks like a ~20C temperature drop from the 13th to the 16th so I think you'll be fine
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Fingers crossed!
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