ChrisC
Well-known member
Kiroro was Day 1 for a group Japan (Hokkaido island) trip.
Everyone flew into Sapporo - New Chitose airport (which is really no where near Sapporo) by about 8pm - and it was a 2 SUV caravan with 6 guys to Kiroro. We stayed at the Kiroro base on Marriott points in 2 rooms at 'The Kiroro' hotel. Nice place - but not worth the money it would have costed. However, we were meeting our guide for the week and everyone had some jet lag - so to get the trip going it was worth one night.
Japan was having one of its worse winters in the last 50 years - however there were recovery snowfalls at New Years, mid-January and now early February. So we were skiing only on a 230-250 cm base or about 100 inches. Tough times. O
(The resorts on Honshu near Nagano / Hakuba never recovered this year).
Anyways - coverage was fine with 100 inches. And by early morning the snow started - maybe 6-8 inches over the day.
Kiroro is about 2000 vertical feet - with some flat and steep sections. However, almost all the woods are very skiable - and there is some above treeline terrain at the summit. We would ski tour at the summit around the treeless bowl (Zone 1) for fresh lines into the birch forest - so it was lift assisted ski touring day. Zone 2 was later in the day.
View attachment 7
Here are some photos over the course of the ski day. Again, the snow came in ocean effect waves - so blizzard to sun breaks was common - but mostly snow. Typically Kiroro gets 1500-2000 cm (600-800 inches) - so this was a typical mid-winter day.
Everyone flew into Sapporo - New Chitose airport (which is really no where near Sapporo) by about 8pm - and it was a 2 SUV caravan with 6 guys to Kiroro. We stayed at the Kiroro base on Marriott points in 2 rooms at 'The Kiroro' hotel. Nice place - but not worth the money it would have costed. However, we were meeting our guide for the week and everyone had some jet lag - so to get the trip going it was worth one night.
Japan was having one of its worse winters in the last 50 years - however there were recovery snowfalls at New Years, mid-January and now early February. So we were skiing only on a 230-250 cm base or about 100 inches. Tough times. O
(The resorts on Honshu near Nagano / Hakuba never recovered this year).Anyways - coverage was fine with 100 inches. And by early morning the snow started - maybe 6-8 inches over the day.
Kiroro is about 2000 vertical feet - with some flat and steep sections. However, almost all the woods are very skiable - and there is some above treeline terrain at the summit. We would ski tour at the summit around the treeless bowl (Zone 1) for fresh lines into the birch forest - so it was lift assisted ski touring day. Zone 2 was later in the day.
View attachment 7
Here are some photos over the course of the ski day. Again, the snow came in ocean effect waves - so blizzard to sun breaks was common - but mostly snow. Typically Kiroro gets 1500-2000 cm (600-800 inches) - so this was a typical mid-winter day.
