I was pleased that Black Diamond took us to Rusutsu for our second day of guided skiing. I had been there with them in 2011and knew our group would enjoy the comfortably spaced tree runs. Rusutsu is less competitive than Niseko so I also knew that much of Wednesday’s snow would still be there. We also later heard that Niseko had a lot of wind with some upper lift closures Thursday.
We parked at East and started up its gondola. Our guide Sandy led us into the trees on every run, where typically we would dump onto a groomer at the end. We primarily skied from the Isola #1 and #2 Quads.
Early on we encountered a noteworthy local skier who was originally from Okinawa, here with Jenny and Liz.
The picture shows what is most noteworthy about him, though we never saw him in action.
A few ski shots: Jenny:
Liz:
Jenny, Liz and Mary:
Sandy:
Snow bridge on downed tree:
From top of Isola we traversed along a boundary ridge to get to the most untracked snow.
After 3PM we moved to the smaller West mountain. The transport gondola provides a good view of the summer amusement park.
Sandy thought we would need to hike up a mountain far skier’s left to get decent untracked snow. However that gate was closed and we had to be content with a traverse to the Elite run. To our delight it had hardly been skied so we could charge it in the powder and we went back there for an extra run.
Total for the day was 16,300 vertical, 8K of powder.
As we were leaving West to return to the car, the local Makkari High School students were arriving for night skiing.
It began puking snow soon after we left Rusutsu and continued for at least 6 hours.
We parked at East and started up its gondola. Our guide Sandy led us into the trees on every run, where typically we would dump onto a groomer at the end. We primarily skied from the Isola #1 and #2 Quads.
Early on we encountered a noteworthy local skier who was originally from Okinawa, here with Jenny and Liz.
The picture shows what is most noteworthy about him, though we never saw him in action.
A few ski shots: Jenny:
Liz:
Jenny, Liz and Mary:
Sandy:
Snow bridge on downed tree:
From top of Isola we traversed along a boundary ridge to get to the most untracked snow.
After 3PM we moved to the smaller West mountain. The transport gondola provides a good view of the summer amusement park.
Sandy thought we would need to hike up a mountain far skier’s left to get decent untracked snow. However that gate was closed and we had to be content with a traverse to the Elite run. To our delight it had hardly been skied so we could charge it in the powder and we went back there for an extra run.
Total for the day was 16,300 vertical, 8K of powder.
As we were leaving West to return to the car, the local Makkari High School students were arriving for night skiing.
It began puking snow soon after we left Rusutsu and continued for at least 6 hours.