Hokkaido Japan; Central Hokkaido or Niseko

[pman]

Picks look great everyone. Getting stoked for my trip. Leaving next Thursday for 10 days of powder chasing based out of Furano. Finally got my first turns on my Pescados last weekend at Mammoth on hard crusty week old snow and they performed much better than I expected. They weren't my 189 Wren 108s but still surprisingly fun.

[benk]

This place has blown up, loads of 8-12person guided groups in every side/backcountry area.
Use resources, plan your own adventure. Crazy to see a backcountry area tracked out one day after a storm.

[NWFlow]

^tokachi area? Crazy busy, but great snow.

[beer30]

Been firing in Niseko, looks like monday could be a big one.

[benk]

Yeah Tokachi, real deep today.

As for the Wren 108’s, you’ll be just fine. I’ve been skiing 191 Caylors in resort and 189 108 Wrens touring and have been having more fun on the Wrens with a lighter setup. Snow is so light width doesn’t make much of a difference

[nortonwhis]

This place has blown up, loads of 8-12person guided groups in every side/backcountry area.
Use resources, plan your own adventure. Crazy to see a backcountry area tracked out one day after a storm.

This is a real bummer. Love that place.
Neckbeard, a somewhat ex-mag, who guides in Hakuba has been writing a bunch of stuff about the over selling of backcountry guides. All fighting over making money, providing poor experiences for guests. Check out his fb page Mountain Life Backcountry Guiding. Lots of warning signs from him.

[TahoeJ]

It’s so easy to just spot a zone without people and skin right up. So many options. No guide needed if you’re an experienced BC skier IMO. Would have done more but only had a vehicle part of the time and not everyone in my group was up for earning a lot of turns. Plenty of low hanging fruit from riding lifts anyway.

[nortonwhis]

It’s so easy to just spot a zone without people and skin right up. So many options. No guide needed if you’re an experienced BC skier IMO. Would have done more but only had a vehicle part of the time and not everyone in my group was up for earning a lot of turns. Plenty of low hanging fruit from riding lifts anyway.

Absolutely agree, but fuck me, the chutes on the north face of Furanodake are worth the hassle.

[NWFlow]

Absolutely agree, but fuck me, the chutes on the north face of Furanodake are worth the hassle.

Indeed. There was plenty to go around

[thommy21]

Got into Niseko a couple hours ago and been dumping. Should be a good first day tomorrow as long as the wind isn’t too bad and upper lifts are running.

[benk]

This is a real bummer. Love that place.
Neckbeard, a somewhat ex-mag, who guides in Hakuba has been writing a bunch of stuff about the over selling of backcountry guides. All fighting over making money, providing poor experiences for guests. Check out his fb page Mountain Life Backcountry Guiding. Lots of warning signs from him.

That’s really interesting to hear and agree if you’re a competent backcountry traveler, you can find great terrain to ski on your own.
Different crowds I guess but I’ve never seen this number and size of guided groups in the backcountry.

[TahoeJ]

Got into Niseko a couple hours ago and been dumping. Should be a good first day tomorrow as long as the wind isn’t too bad and upper lifts are running.

Once things start to get tracked, head up the Hirafu gondola and hike (3-4 minutes) up to the right and drop into the trees on the other side. No matter how far left or right you go you’ll hit the cat track returning you to the base. Thank me later. ;-)

[pman]

This is my first trip to Furano (and Japan period) and we decided to go the guided route so we can check out all the resorts in the area without to much craziness. We are all middle aged dudes with little kids so time away from work and the family is the biggest constraint so we want to get everything we can in the 12 days we are there. That and we are a group of 6 so hiring a guide between the 6 of us wasn't horrendously bad. I am assuming Furano itself will be a bit busy but any recommendations on places within ~100km around to go. We all have tones of BC experience but only half the group have ever actually toured. We are looking for mostly resort based sidecountry and a day or two of actual touring. 4 days and counting.

[TahoeJ]

We all have tones of BC experience but only half the group have ever actually toured.

I find this sentence... confusing.

[pman]

I find this sentence... confusing.

15+ years of boot packing in the side country for clarification. I might have a different definition of BC experience than others but we are all comfortable outside the resorts. Some of the group have just never free heeled it up a mountain.

[Mike Pow]

Mt Racey
Tomamu
Nukabira Gensenkyo

[jtran10]

Have a flight booked from sapporo to Osaka for 3 nights there before my final 2 in tokyo, but thinking of purchasing another fight and going to tokyo instead and skipping Osaka to ski more.

Didn't get an international license before coming... what's the best place to base out of to take buses to ski? Would otaru work? I'll have skied furano zone 8 days already so would like to check elsewhere.

Hostel recs to meet others, or any mags want to meet up? I'll arrive in Sapporo 26th afternoon, and would fly out of chitose 29th late PM.

[TahoeJ]

There are quite a few daily shuttles out of Niseko (the welcome center and a few other spots) for places like Rusutsu and Kiroro. Otaru would most likely consist of trains and then transferring to buses, at least that was my impression (similar to Sapporo). Depending on your group size it’s also pretty easy to just book a taxi straight from your hotel and arrange pickup at the end of the day. In a few cases we realized this was actually cheaper or very close.

[jtran10]

Would just be me. Not sure if trekking from furano to niseko is in the cards, but thanks for beta. Hmm

[Mike Pow]

Have a flight booked from sapporo to Osaka for 3 nights there before my final 2 in tokyo, but thinking of purchasing another fight and going to tokyo instead and skipping Osaka to ski more.

Didn't get an international license before coming... what's the best place to base out of to take buses to ski? Would otaru work? I'll have skied furano zone 8 days already so would like to check elsewhere.

Hostel recs to meet others, or any mags want to meet up? I'll arrive in Sapporo 26th afternoon, and would fly out of chitose 29th late PM.

From Otaru

Train to Sapporo Teine.
Bus to Tenguyama, Asari, Sapporo Kokusai, Kiroro

[jtran10]

From Otaru

Train to Sapporo Teine.
Bus to Tenguyama, Asari, Sapporo Kokusai, Kiroro

Cheers. Will do some research.

[TahoeJ]

Some of my favorite runs were snow blurred after the first turn and I should have brought an extra GoPro battery, but here's some footage from Grand Hirafu, Hanazono and Sapporo Teine, plus side country.

[Adrgha]

Sweet. Did you get as much snow as you expected?

[El Chupacabra]

We're in Otaru now, dumping down snow!

Went to Sapporo Teine today because all of us had a rough night's sleep and started late. It was OK - tiny area, off piste jammed with brush and trees ib many areas.

Tomorrow should be good. Snow is accumulating fast. Thinking Kiroro...

[El Chupacabra]

Japanese food has been great. Japanese toilet paper and beer are crap.

FYI for anyone following the thread for info: we shipped out ski bags via Yamato black cat service from Narita, but could not ship to Chitose airport for pickup. Instead we shipped to the warehouse in Otaru and picked up the bags there. About $20 each. Worked perfectly.

Our rental car is a Subaru Crossover (that's the name - aka Exiga), and 192cm skis fit inside. 3-row car. We fit four people and skis and luggage inside, barely. I'm glad we didn't get the Toyota Sienta - saw them and they are shorter than this Subaru. We're using GPS on phones rather than the one in the dashboard - seems to work better.