The Hakuba valley is where the 1998 Olympic events were held. I had extra time before my lodging reservation in Niseko, so I'm here for 3 days. It's a 4-hour train north from Tokyo. Not too far from the Sea of Japan so the snowiest part of central Honshu, ~350 inches a year. Lift service is from ~3,000 to 6,000+ feet. The above treeline Japan Alps above these areas go up to 10,000 but that's all national park with no lifts.
This is the part of Japan where off-piste skiing is not permitted, a tempting example here.
The treed terrain looks pretty good, though there are narrow ravines similar to the SoCal mountains that would need to be avoided. Today I was with Bill Glude, a backcountry guide from Alaska (I met him at ISSW in October) who is here from ~Dec. 15 - Feb. 15 for the last 6 years.
Why not Niseko? He likes the Japanese culture and the bigger mountains here, and interestingly they do allow pure backcountry skiing, just not any slackcountry directly lift accessible. He's also working on permits to get a snowcat operation going.
We started today ~9:30AM at the Goryu base. There's a 2,300 vert gondola with just 2 runs, both of decent intermediate pitch, one section of moguls that were not deep at all due to recent heavy snowfalls. About 11AM an upper chair opened that allowed the connection to Hakuba 47, which has more variety and a high speed quad in its mid-elevations. Weather deteriorated, I was in my goggles by the time we rode that upper chair at Goryu and the wind steadily increased along with light snow. By 12:30 the wind was cranking and the lifts started shutting down. So we were done by 1PM and had to take a shuttle bus back to the Goryu base. Thus a modest 12,400 for the shortened day.
It was a good day to be with a local. Bill picked up something at a local ski shop and I tried on another AT boot. Then we went to his favorite sushi spot for lunch. I was astounded that the lunch special of sashimi, tempura, rice, soup and a small nicely grilled fish was only 1000 yen (~$12). Bill said that lengthy dinners with exotic sushi and lots of sake are still ~$50-70. Those of you who have eaten at high end Japanese restaurants know that kind of dinner in the US can run well into triple digits.
This is the part of Japan where off-piste skiing is not permitted, a tempting example here.
The treed terrain looks pretty good, though there are narrow ravines similar to the SoCal mountains that would need to be avoided. Today I was with Bill Glude, a backcountry guide from Alaska (I met him at ISSW in October) who is here from ~Dec. 15 - Feb. 15 for the last 6 years.
Why not Niseko? He likes the Japanese culture and the bigger mountains here, and interestingly they do allow pure backcountry skiing, just not any slackcountry directly lift accessible. He's also working on permits to get a snowcat operation going.
We started today ~9:30AM at the Goryu base. There's a 2,300 vert gondola with just 2 runs, both of decent intermediate pitch, one section of moguls that were not deep at all due to recent heavy snowfalls. About 11AM an upper chair opened that allowed the connection to Hakuba 47, which has more variety and a high speed quad in its mid-elevations. Weather deteriorated, I was in my goggles by the time we rode that upper chair at Goryu and the wind steadily increased along with light snow. By 12:30 the wind was cranking and the lifts started shutting down. So we were done by 1PM and had to take a shuttle bus back to the Goryu base. Thus a modest 12,400 for the shortened day.
It was a good day to be with a local. Bill picked up something at a local ski shop and I tried on another AT boot. Then we went to his favorite sushi spot for lunch. I was astounded that the lunch special of sashimi, tempura, rice, soup and a small nicely grilled fish was only 1000 yen (~$12). Bill said that lengthy dinners with exotic sushi and lots of sake are still ~$50-70. Those of you who have eaten at high end Japanese restaurants know that kind of dinner in the US can run well into triple digits.
