Japan 2010-11

A snowHead

Snow falling all day in Niseko and still coming down. Really, really deep and substantial gradient needed to go anywhere and even then often just going in a straightline - several runs ended in wading out through waist deep snow - and I'm 6'3"!

A snowHead

Damn, does it know how to snow here!

Snowed heavily all day, and still going this evening. Only the bottom lifts were open, and none of the BC gates (Swinging Monkey was the highest lift open). Still some awesome skiing to be had though - even if you did need to make sure you had a telemarker handy to break a trail out at the end for you wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

ChrisWo, SnowJapan says 65cm in the last 24 hours.

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Yeah, and around 1m in the last 48 hours...but that was this morning, and there must've been another 50cm since then. It's pretty shuweeeet!

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As of Monday 31 January 2011

Niseko Hirafu village level measurements

January snowfall - 6.0 m

Season snowfall SO FAR - 9.02 m

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... · As of Monday 31 January 2011

After all it is free

Key question for us now is how soon after a big snowfall does the BC become skiable? The avalanche bulletin is fairly blunt about the current risks, and given the wind and snowfall I guess most leeward slopes will be pretty dangerous for a while...it'd be really nice to get a backcountry day in while we're here though.

rob@rar, other random thoughts worth passing on while I think of them - don't go to Wabi Sabi (opposite Seicomart), do go to Gyu bar for chilled out music and excellent selection of drinks, and KomeKichi (at the bottom of the gondola) for onigiri at lunch and fresh bread/cakes at 3pm.

P.S. Still snowing...

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hmm, note to self, ignore posts of Rob and his snorkel over the coming weeks.....

Going green

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kitenski, I'll try to be restrained. Currently skiing hardpack in Les Arcs, so I figure I'll have earned the odd metre or two of fresh...

snow reports

rob@rar, surely La Ros is deep in fresh Wink

kitenski, you'd have thought that, wouldn't you. However, last report from Dwarf Vader who's there for the season said

You know it makes sense.

Well high winds are keeping most of the higher lifts closed in Niseko too. The weather was supposed to clear up towards the end of today, but although we've had some clearer spells it's 7pm and the snow's still falling pretty hard - think this is the first ski holiday where I've begun to wish it would stop snowing (only quietly, mind, and without conviction) Embarassed

We're some how struggling through though - did a few laps of some really nice lines off Swinging Monkey, and off the back off Mirahashi today. There's still an astonishing amount of untracked pow left:

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Just think of all those people getting suntanned in Europe, skiing on hardpack.....Enjoy! Reasonable chance of sunshine tomorrow.

A snowHead

Last day on the mountain today. Mostly sunny, and quite warm, but pretty windy first thing - the peak chairs were delayed opening. When they did open, along with the peak gate, the hike up was like the M25 on a bad day...but then it was the first time peak gate had opened for a week so there was a lot of pent-up backcountry love out there.

Low down, there was a fair bit of crust about in the morning, though in the trees or on the shady side things were ok. All the obvious stuff was tracked out though, and we wouldn't have found much without the services of Ross from Shinsetsu.

Once the peak gate opened we hiked up there and followed Ross round past the snow 'gargoyles' into a bowl on the backside of the peak. In the shade the snow was still powdery, though fairly firm rather than fluffy. Once we crossed the ridgeline back into the sun it got a bit sticky and spring-like but was still good skiing.

The run home took us along some pistes; higher up they were in good condition and covered in some nice soft snow, lower down it got really icy scratchy (however unlikely that seems given the 6m snow this month!).

So in short - there's still powder to be had, but surprisingly little given recent snowfall. All in all, a cracking week though and will try to post a TR at some point (but may wait for thebongolian to sort out the numerous videos he's taken).

A snowHead

Getting a bit too warm in Hokkaido for my liking over the past few days! But there was alot of snow earlier this week, especially in the South West, as ChrisWo seems to have enjoyed!

Although there is still some decent snow to be found on higher, shady slopes in central Hokkaido, it seems most stuff is pretty baked, and on piste is hardpacked. (Was actually verging on icy last night)

Some snow is forecast starting from the early hours of tomorrow morning and through Saturday, which hopefully will be accompanied by dropping temperatures. Fingers crossed as we're heading up to the far north to check out the sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday from an icebreaker.

We're hitting Kamui tomorrow, and probably Furano next weekend. Also its the 'Yuki Matsuri' (snow festival) in Sapporo next week, so I'll try and post some photos of the snow sculptures.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Japan seems to be where the snow is at - is it a good option to do for longer term stays like 6 weeks or whole season or is it too expensive?

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MagSeven, yep it's definitely a bit warm in Hokkaido - it felt like spring this morning. The amount of snow falling off rooves is pretty spectacular (and deadly...I think several people have been killed recently across the island).

Windskisurf, I don't know what rent is like, but food is relatively cheap so it might be a viable option for a longer term stay. The expensive bit for a holiday is the transportation, so if you get 6 weeks to 'defray' the cost of flights over then it's going to work out much more cost-effective. Others who've spent the season there will be able to say for sure...

Might be worth noting that the guide we had said his 'season' was usually just under three months. He goes out in December and is often home by March. The lady running our pension was also commenting that the season seems to be getting shorter and shorter...so an 8 week stay might effectively be a full season!

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A decent weekend for central Hokkaido. Temps are still fairly high, but at least its cooler than it was Thursday and Friday. We had good snow overnight on Friday, and very heavy on Saturday around Asahikawa and the northern part of Taisetsusan.

We went to Kamui on Saturday, which was busy, but mainly with school groups, so not many people in the trees. There was a nice amount of snow. It wasn't super deep, but it was great to get some pow after the crappy week.

Today we were up on the north coast at Monbetsu. We hit a small hill up there which was fun, although we were just messing about with mates. A great view from the top, you can see the sea ice a few kilometres offshore.

Windskisurf I think accomodation out here for 6 weeks without working would get quite expensive. There are cheaper options with long stays in pensions/hostels etc though. Yeah, the season isn't the longest here in terms of resort skiing. Less and less snow falls from the end of Feb and into March. But there is still snow, you just don't get powder days quite as regularly. But the snow sticks around until May/June if you're willing to hike for it. Mainly up in Taisetsusan. In fact there were patches of snow up there in August this year. But for a 6 week stay, if you were to come out soon after New Year, until mid Feb, you'd have the best of the snow.

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looking at costings for Japan, rob said previously:

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After all it is free

rob@rar, kitenski, based on my trip the following are reasonable costs (all in Yen):

Guide - 10,000, assuming you can get a group together of 4+. We used Shinsetsu who were very good

Pint of beer - 600

Meals - 1,500 to 2,000 exc. booze eating out

The exchange rate can really swing the cost at the moment £1 gets you about ¥130, but at the peak of the strength of the pound you could get ¥230 I think.

cheers thebongolian, assume thats 10,000 each per day for a group of 4??

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kitenski, exactly, per person per day. And that's for skiing out the gates from the lift system. Exact cost will depend on what you want to do.

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thebongolian, great thanks alot! Do you need to hike/skin at all with a guide depending on snow conditions?

I presume it's a much better off piste experience out the gates, do the Japanese have the same USA in bounds mentality, or more European like with marked runs and everything else is off piste?

Forgive my ignorance Embarassed

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It's a bit different to both and varies between mountains. Niseko is quite like the US with a resort boundary and everything within it being fair game (albeit some areas are specifically marked as unpatrolled though are avalanche safe). They then have backcountry gates and if you go out of the those you are basically on your own though I suspect they don't open them when conditions are too risky. So outside the gates is like Euro off-piste including a lot of idiots piling into it without shovel, beacon, probe...

Other places are a lot more restrictive. I was also in Hakuba where most of the resorts basically rope off everything other than the marked runs. They even have CCTV to make sure you don't go in some areas. You can of course take the risk but there's no assurance on your safety and your pass might get pulled. That doesn't stop people and I suspect they turn a blind eye in quite a few cases.

In terms of skinning / hiking, in Niseko you'll probably need to do some walking for most of the off-piste out of gates - either to get to the peak or to get back to a piste at the bottom - as the obvious stuff you can ski easily gets tracked out quickly (or because the snow is so deep you have to walk to get anywhere!). They kindly bash the walks out from what we saw so bootpacking is fine. Away from these areas trudging through deep snow would probably be painful for anything other than short distances so skins would make more sense and the possibilities looked endless.

That said our guide was able to find us nice untracked pitches with basically no walking. And if you have transport there are options to go to other places which will get less skied out.

Just to add that thebongolian's food costs are good numbers to use for planning, but it's probably possible to eat cheaper if you really try (vegetable yakisoba/okonomiyaki was 850 yen at one place). There also seemed to be cheaper options for lunch on the mountain, varying from 600 yen (for a couple of rice balls and some soup at Komekichi) to 1800 yen for the all you can eat buffet in Annupuri.

Sadly the yen was at 250 to the pound back at the end of 2007...but you probably don't want to think about that if you're planning a trip now rolling eyes

You know it makes sense.

It was a lovely blue sky day in Niseko. The views across to Mt Yotei are pretty good. Maybe not quite up there with the Matterhorn, but it's a fine view nonetheless.

All the backcountry gates were open today, and while it's largely tracked out there is lots of soft snow to play with. Perfect "variable snow" if you know BASI terminology Happy

On piste conditions were just about perfect, with groomed "packed powder" if you know SCGB terminology Happy

Apparently it's busy weekend, with yesterday being a holiday in Japan. I suppose busy is a relative term as there were no lift queues at all, with the exception of a couple of the gondolas out of the village but even those were no more than 5 minutes. Forecast is for moderately heavy snow (although 50cm isn't moderate in my book!) and the first flakes have just started to fall.

If the skiing isn't exciting enough for you some of the uplift raises your heartrate:

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

It's not often I post photos of toilets on snowHeads, in fact I think this might be a first. But Japan's a special country with special toilets and I thought I'd share the instructions for the loo in my room (and that's not a phrase I thought I'd ever say out loud):

I'm pleased to see it includes phone and fax numbers in case you need to contact somebody about the experience. The control panel for the toilet is even more exciting.

I'm not sure I'm brave enough to press the Bum Washing Button™, but I am trying to pluck up enough courage to press the Lady Appears From The Toilet An A Magical Jet of Water Button™ because that might be an experience one wouldn't forget in a hurry.

A snowHead

A snowHead

rob@rar, How does the google translate app work with the toilet controls? Toofy Grin

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

i like the look of the button which summons a buxom lass in a pearl g-string. (top left blue)

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rogg, beware press the wrong button and a strange hose extends out...

Nice in Japan to find mountain side toilets with heated seats...

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This is somewhere in Japan, I believe...

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thebongolian, Shocked

rob@rar, I was jealous...

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rob@rar, at least the bum wash and magic lady buttons are vaguely guessable - I think you owe it to us all to try out all the other buttons and report back on the results!

After all it is free

Don't press them all rob, I think the one second from bottom says "circumcision" Shocked

It's been snowing hard for the last couple of hours, with around 15cm of fresh at the base and probably more on the hill especially where it has blown in to the sheltered gullies. One thing which is amazing to this first time visitor here is the sheer quantity of snow all around the village. There are piles and piles of snow everywhere, 3m, 4m, 5m high. Just amazing!

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thats some pile on that roof Shocked

love those toilet pictures, i'd be worried pressing anything in there!

Help!!

Japan 2010-11

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