By Mid January we were getting desperate for snow. Here I was in Japan for a month and a half in the worst season in many years. By now we were taking people who had planned the trip months in advance to try and find anything worth of riding. After a meter deep storm in put a little bit of snowpack on the sasa covered jungles my friend Ben Starkey came and we went on an adventure around the backcountry of ShigaKogen trying to find a new spot everyday for over a week without any new snow.

By now we had an almost militaristic routine of waking up at 6 for coffee, at the car by 7, Quick stop at Lawson around 8 and being at the resort by 8:45. After the riding it was Onsen followed by sushi train and possibly a quick stop by the grocery store everyday.

 

 

The snowpack was shot as we skinned towards up through the jungles of one of the highest peaks across valley from Yakabitiyama. Day after day we would stare at a cool open slope and Ben and I decided to go on a bush bash to attempt to ride the line making our way through sasa jungles along the way.

There had been no real storms burying the low brush elevations which made both the skinning and riding challenging but we kept going hoping to find an open line on our way back down.

As we skinned to the top of the ridge in thick forest we found what looked to be the entrance of a big drainage system and with the forests around us still to thick to ride we dropped in finding really good powder conditions along the way.

As we got lower the gully tightened but we were still able to make our way down in great snow.

As the gully choked it became a small waterfall which we were able to ride around turned into a pretty rad line that would be way better once we finally got more snow.

After riding a ways we put in a boot pack off of the gully and rode back through the woods down to the river where we found a spot to cross it back to the Yakabitiyama ski resort where our car was parked and call it a day.

The next day we had got a few more centimeters of snow so we decided to head out to our go to spot just N of the Yoketeyama ski resort out of Shiga Kogen. With a 7 dollar one way ticket we would go up and ride down to the backside to the base of the Shirane ski resort where we would transition near an old Japanese Hotel with two Golden Retrievers. It was a fun spot to go to over the days and watch the cute dogs steal peoples gear.

As we skinned up a mellow ridge the backside of the peak we skinned the day before came into view and we were amazed by the contrast on aspects. Here was a huge open face while the other side was sasa jungle.

On the hill directly across the way from the ski resort I had found this nice little gully system which with a nice 500 foot line there was a nice bench where you could put in a mellow 2 switchback skin back up to the road. It was cool because it brought you back to the hotel where if you wanted you could get some coffee or hot food.

Out of all the surrounding areas this place had some of the best snowpack around and was north facing so we would keep going back to the nice open trees.

Going back on the skin track I always enjoyed the unique trees that you went through and within 20 minutes you were back on top of the ridge getting ready to ride another line.

As time went on I really started to get familiar with the area with around 8 different drop in spots through thick forest before it opened up to more suitable open terrain. We had a low snowpack but we were making the most of conditions.

As time went on we kept making runs lower and lower on the ridge until finally we did a run that put us a few hundred feet below us. Instead of catching up with our old skin track we decided to climb up the other side of the main gully and put in a track on the opposing ridge.

We had been riding from 9 to around 3:00 and as we skinned up through the forest we were happy to see views starting to clear of different potential areas that actually had a snowpack and had made the most out of the good snow. By now everyone was going crazy with no snow in Japan but here we were making the most out of what we had.

The lines that we were riding weren’t the biggest or the best but they were fun to get to know and to show people around. I had broken down the gully network in my head and had fun taking people to the spot behind Ben in the photos. We were a few days deep into his trip and at this point I kept up to a promise I made him “If you want we will never touch another persons tracks in Japan”. All we could do is wait for the snow to arrive and keep coming up with new tours along the way.