 Poster: A snowHead
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Repost from my blog, there's some more photos on there if anyone wants to check them out.
Daisetsuzan days, Asahidake.
I messaged Shannon to see if he wanted to go for a day skinning. and coincidentally he was just planning a whirlwind trip to central Hokkaido. At 9 in the morning I wasn’t sure if we were going, at 6 we were hitting the road to Furano, about a 4 hour drive away. In the car were the Martin twins, Shannon and Rohan, and Johan, a Dane on his first winter here.
We had a loose plan to ski the resort of Furano, but in the morning it hadn’t snowed much so we figured the backcountry would be better. After a quick Seicomart visit and another drive we were in the Tokachidake region of the Daisetsuzan national park. Not having any real maps of the region we stopped at a visitor centre to see what info they had. A very friendly Japanese man helped us out with some maps and directions, when asked if he wanted to join us he said it was too cold and that he would be staying inside with some whiskey, looking outside at the freezing cold whiteout I was a little tempted to stay.
Along the way we had acquired a camper van full of Belgians and Aussies so we had a big crew of 9, it took a while to get going (the Martin family is not famed for it’s speed of preparation) and immediately we were faced with a river to cross. Thankfully no-one fell in and we started to gain elevation. After an hour or so’s skinning we made it above tree line, waiting for the tailenders we had a look at the slope below us. The wind had been depositing a lot of snow on the ridge and as we peered over the edge a crack propagated for about 10m either side of me, we had just made the call to head back down the ridge to the tree line when a snowboarder shouted over to us that 3 people had been caught in an avalanche in the next valley.
Somehow I found myself the first person heading out into the gully to search for the party, the others stayed on the ridge watching, my heart was racing as I thought I was either going to have to dig some people out, or possibly get caught in a slide myself. As I traversed, a windslab broke away below me and I kick turned back to the trees to descend and cross at a flatter area with denser trees. Thankfully when I reached the group of boarders they seemed to be alright (my Japanese doesn’t really stretch to much more than ‘are you ok?’). They had been swept about 150-200m down the slope by an avalanche that broke about 30cm deep and 20m wide. They had been ascending the gully, which seemed near suicidal given the amount of wind affected snow that was sitting on nasty rain crust.
Back on the safety of the ridge I calmed down and we made a plan for the day. As we were a big group of a few different speeds, we split up, Johan, Shannon and I went off to go find some soft snow in the trees. The initial drama forgotten, we had a great day lapping a few different bowls on the lower flanks of Furanodake, the last run back down to the river was particularly spectacular, steep terrain, deep dry snow and some fun features.
It was very tempting to stay in the same area and ski more of the same the next day, but we had reservations at a hostel in Asahidake so we packed up the car and got moving. We arrived at the hostel just in time for a great dinner, a beer and a well deserved onsen.
The next day dawned bluebird with about 20cms of snow on the car, stoke levels and expectations were high. Asahidake is not a normal ski resort, it just has one tram that runs every 20 minutes, we rushed into line and were rewarded with the last spots on the first tram of the day. Pushing off down the ridge the snow looked wind affected, but in fact it was deep and light, a very pleasant surprise.
The rest of the day we explored the ridge to lookers right. It’s a quick skin up and accesses some really fun chutes and bowls. We were a bit nervy about avalanche risk so stayed off some of the steeper areas, not everyone was so conservative, we encountered a lone snowboarder who punched a hole through a massive cornice in order to ski a scary looking slope, happily we also saw him on the runout.
6 epic laps of Hokkaidos finest powder later it was time to grind the 5 hours back to Niseko and teaching the next day. Big thanks to Shannon for driving and taking photos and everyone for the company!
Most photos by Shannon Martin/Pagetwo travel, a few (without watermarks) are mine.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Very noice
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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All Japow pics are depressingly similar - perhaps you only need to employ head or arm models 
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