 Poster: A snowHead
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A few pics and notes from our recent self guided Hokkaido road trip.
Day 1- Sapporo Teine.
^^ As is traditional we kicked of in Sapporo Teine. A cold, Bluebird day and a few days since the last snowfall so not much in the way of Japow. The highlight was dropping the gully lines through the top gate, to the skiers left of the old cable car station.
Day 2 - Mount Racey.
^^ As well as serving up some excellent piste skiing there were hints of Japow although cover was thin in places. That said there were some some good trees and the odd Curly Wurly feature which gave some nice turns. A great resort if you are learning to ski, superb teaching terrain.
Day 3 - Sapporo Kokusai
^^ Kokusai gives a few options. Exit out of bounds from the gate next to the top station it's possible to descend and rejoin the resort at the base station. Another option is to skin up the ridge to Mt Asari. Just down the road from the resort is the start for the ski tour up to Matashita-yama.
As it was the weather against us, light snow wind and poor viz which confined us to mucking about in resort. 'Official' in bounds options seem slim.
Day 4 - Kiroro
^^ Another blue bird day but not much in the way of fresh, but there were petting dogs 
"On a powder day" I can see the possibilities but most of the inbound off piste was closed. If you plan to exit through the top gates you need to register in the main building and they like you back by 3pm, so worth going early.
Day 5 - Mt Yotei
^^ It's fair to say another day of resort 'powder' wasn't exactly compelling so we opted for short tour on the flanks of Mount Yotei. The temperature had risen and the snow had humidified making the descent 'interesting' once we hit the zero isotherm but it was nice to get the skins on and escape the resorts.
On the upside we found a great cafe just up the road, "Cafe Fucca".
Day 6 - Weisshorn ski tour.
^^ With little snow over night resort skiing gave way to another tour, this time on the Weisshorn. The drive over showed just how localised the snowfall can be, with much more on the ground at the trail head. We through we had parked up out of the way, next to a local's car but were moved on by an official in a yellow pickup. Trail head parking does seem to be limited. As luck would have it we parked just down the road next to the Cat Ski operation which added a couple of K's to the tour.
Above the tree line was wind affected but the tree's served up some lovely soft snow.
Day 7 - Rusutsu
^^ Our time in the South West was at and end so we took the chance to sample Rusutsu. Again, no new snow to speak of but Rusutsu is the place when it snows with accessible tree skiing and off piste. Probably the pick of the bunch.
Day 8 - Mt. Sandan ski tour
^^ After the South West we headed north for a few days in the lovely town of Beie. With little fresh snow in the last few days we decided to ski tour Mt Furano, but on getting to the trail head reasonably early the parking was full. Plan B involved a short drive to the Hakuginso Lodge and a tour up to Mt Sanden. Above the tree line was wind scoured and crampons were desirable the final section to the Summit.
On the ski down we ducked skiers left into the trees where we finally discovered un-tracked 'Japow'. A second lap followed by a dip in the outside onsen made for an excellent day.
Day 9 -Furano
^^ On the last trip Furano give us one the best days with full on Japow. This time it was all a bit hard work, long ticket queues but good coffee. We skied some tracked fresh and by the time we left it was hammering down.
Day 10 - Asahidake
The forecast was heavy overnight snow, so we got up early, first in the queue, cable car closed for high winds 
So we skinned up and sure enough it was blowing a hoolie which got worse as the day went on. After an aborted descent (avy risk) we skied the cable car line and found some nice turns although the wind had affected the snow. A second lap just confirmed this.
Asahidake is a place worth visiting, I likened it to a mini Le Grave. It offers some steeper ground and on a sunny day you can get up close to the fumerals.
Day 11 - Mt Furano
^^ Simply an epic ski touring day, with lovely un-tracked light Japow and tree's.
Day 12 - Hakuginso Lodge
^^ With the best powder to be found below the tree line, we returned to the Hakuginso lodge to ski tour and lap the trees a couple of times. Rounded off with a dip in the wild onsen just down the road.
Day 13 - Tomamu
^^ We were looking for a resort to ski on the way back to the airport and Tomamu looked a good bet. Close to the motorway with easy access to Chitose its a good bet for a first day resort if you stay in Chitose. Better, the off piste and inbounds tree skiing is excellent and easily accessible.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Balanced report in what was a fairly dry period.
There was untracked, boot top and deeper powder in resort but you have to know the areas well to access it and still be able to get back to the lifts.
And this season the lower angle slopes have been the go.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Sun 16-02-20 7:06; edited 1 time in total
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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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@AndAnotherThing.., nice report! Hopefully the last few days scratched the Japow itch for you!
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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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@Mike Pow, @BobinCH, I really like Japan so sure I'll be back for 3rd time lucky. The expectation (hope) was we'd be lapping resort powder and only packed the skins as an option.
With hind sight we should have started touring sooner and done more touring in the Niseko area but on the other hand it was good to explore different resorts which will give more options for next time.
The Hokkaido Wilds site is an excellent resource especially when combined with the Avenza mapping app. I'm usually a traditional paper map person but this combo show's how tech can really help especially in a situation like Japan where paper maps are hard to come by at short notice.
I'd also recommend again the town of Beie as a base to give access to the Furano area and the Daisetsuzan National park, plus resorts around Asahikawa.
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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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@AndAnotherThing.., Looked like great fun! We are thinking of doing something similar next year. Would you mind letting me know roughly how much the trip cost? Ballpark figure will do. Thank you.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@luanb, Broadly speaking we pre booked 3 or 4 nights in nights in Sapporo and I think this time a place in the Niseko area for a few days. From there we used booking.com and airB&B to follow the snow. With 4 in the group that made accommodation more affordable and most places we could juggle sofa beds etc to allow for singles. I think we were paying in the region of £40ea per night on average.
With the apartments you could eat in and there are bigger supermarkets for crisps and beer. Eating out was not expensive at around 2200 yen each inc beer for local places. Food was superb, although tricky if you are a vegetarian.
Car hire is available through one of several companies by the airport. We got lucky but I'd imagine £600 for a small 4x4 between 2 people. We found it better to have 2 small cars rather than 1 large.
Lift tickets are maybe £40 per day, assuming you are not touring.
Flights are say £550 ?
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