From mid Jan to mid Feb it’s a great time to be in Honshu as you have gotten the snowpack and the snow is still nuking. From the onsens to riding on a meter of unconsolidated snow. When it’s on…..it’s on
With a plane ticket leaving the following day. On my last full day in Japan Andre suggested that we go check out Hakuba as I had never been there and it was a 2 hour drive away so we went to check out Happo One, one of the biggest of numerous resorts in the area. With a Gondola and 2 chair lift bump we made our way to the top of the resort at 2100 meters and would climb an addition 600 to the top of the ridge.
Finally the storm came after 3 and a half weeks of waiting and only 2 days of good resort riding I finally got another half meter deep storm just 3 days before I was bound to leave Japan. I had planned on staying later in the season as it was a low time in the … Read more
After seeing a photo on I posted on Instagram I was contacted by Ben who lived in the area and was planning a hut mission and asked if I wanted to join him, and friends Leif and Owen. The next morning I met up with Ben at the Illyama train station and after an hour … Read more
My friend Andre who lived across the valley was looking to get out on a ski tour and once we saw a small weather window we went out to Suginahara on the North side of Myoko Kogen and purchased a one time only Gondi ticket and were off for a camping trip on the crater … Read more
After a week of good snow a front came in and rained to the top of the mountains leaving the place a ice skating rink. Soon enough it was just my good friend Kyle and me (yes 2 Kyle’s) waiting for the snow to come back. We spent our time heading out and taking photos … Read more
I arrived at Narita at 8P.M. and after going through customs I shuffled through my bags and pulled out my snowboarding gear and board before sending the rest of the gear off to my final destination through a company named Black Cat who deals with your 23 Kilo bag for 20$ and went off to … Read more
First off I have to apologize as there aren’t many photos as we were too busy filming the whole trip but here are a few shots the were taken on over the next 4 weeks. By now it was my forth time back in Japan heading to our little snowy village on the edge of … Read more
After spending a few days attempting to do what we could to help Leigh get his stuff in order and buying a new van Dan and I made the decision to head down to the village and get a bit closer to the ski hill and have easy access to Onsen and food as well. Leigh had gone through a lot and it was a good time to give him some space so we grabbed our gear and moved into the town.
Almost immediately the snow came back with night after night of 20 to 30cms occasionally going to sleep with no new snow and waking up to 30cms and best of all it rarely came with wind causing to snow to fall in unreal fluffy conditions.
By now it was my third trip to Japan and I had everything pretty much dialed. After flying in I dropped most my gear off with the Black Cat baggage service and for 30USD$ I had nothing but my primary snowboard gear (Snowboard, Boots, etc, etc) and was on the Shink bulet train back in a cabin in the mountains of Nagano within 3 hours of landing. I arrive a few days before a storm was about to arrive in late January and hunkered down for the chaos the next 48 hours would provide.
The storm hit heavy starting with around 80cms the first night bringing thigh deep snow to a resort which was all but abandoned as not many people are storm skiers in Japan and prefer sunny days. That left the place pretty much all to us.
It had been well over 2 months and still no real big storms in Japan but Ben’s time was running short so after a small dusting of snow it was time to show him our go to tour on the Volcano, Shirane. After doing the tour numerous times I came up with a route that would afford 4 runs along the way utilizing the best terrain along the way. So after a ski lift bump up Yoketeyama ski resort and a descent down Shirane we were on the edge of Shigakogen and transitioning for a long day in the backcountry. Our first skin was up a mellow ridge to it’s high point enjoying breaking a fresh trail in around 10cms of new snow.
Our plans were to climb to the high peak and ride down to the opposing valley than skin up past the sulfur vents steaming in the distance before reaching the volcanoes crater rim.
