ChrisC
Well-known member
Niseko
Wanted to post some information about skiing in Japan - I absolutely loved it! Likely there is no better place to consistently ski powder in January and February. Forget Alta-Snowbird, Jackson, Mt Baker, Whistler, etc.
The snow comes down in waves of moisture (4-16" increments almost daily), low-moisture cold snow. It snowed every day... and it snowed again.
I will try to organize this post by topics, descriptions, and photos (mostly because of the site).
Trip
Boys trip from all over the USA (Telluride, Crested Butte, Denver, SF, Boston). Coordinating that is a bit of a nightmare - brother got stuck with that. It could have been a larger group of guys - but we had one house, one guide, one snowcat .... so it was the first guys who committed.
I took 2 days in Tokyo pre-trip because I had never been. There were so many American men (not really - but we all stuck out) doing Tokyo pre-trip .... likely due to Ja-POW reputation, Epic/MC/Ikon pass .... we were all wearing our American mountain town gear while the Japanese looked awesome/put together/chic.
Guide
We hired a guide for the week - easier than dealing with a bunch of early 40 something men on where to ski. Our guided days were 1 Kiroro, 2 Niseko,1 Rusutsu.
We all brought ski-touring gear - not really necessary at resort lift style skiing in Niseko - but good for Kiroro or Rusutsu.
The guys who have heli-skied before listened to the guide .... others just said f-you....I'm going down at times.
The guide was pretty awesome - he would pick the group up in a van every day. Take us to onsens after ski. Showed us some of the best cheap sushi and Japanese dining often in Kutchan. Mostly he was dealing with us from 7 am -7 pm... Thank god. His season In Japan is mid-December to March 1st ... then back to New Zealand .... Niseko powder dries up in March.
House
We found a great house in Niseko. An Airbnb makes it much cheaper. We had a completely awesome pad - onsen, game room, boot dryers, big living space. Think - Chinese money is inflating a lot of costs.
Costs
With that many guys and a house - I paid about $1k for a week of guiding and lodging.
Bad Snow Year 2019-20
Yes - this was the worst snow year for Japan in decades. The north island recovered - Hokkaido. But the resorts on the main island - never really recovered. We had lower snow bases, but the quality was excellent. Never really hit a rock - just dodged or blasted through bamboo lower down. Ski bases were still 100"+. I think the season snowfall was around 400"+ up high.
Wanted to post some information about skiing in Japan - I absolutely loved it! Likely there is no better place to consistently ski powder in January and February. Forget Alta-Snowbird, Jackson, Mt Baker, Whistler, etc.
The snow comes down in waves of moisture (4-16" increments almost daily), low-moisture cold snow. It snowed every day... and it snowed again.
I will try to organize this post by topics, descriptions, and photos (mostly because of the site).
Trip
Boys trip from all over the USA (Telluride, Crested Butte, Denver, SF, Boston). Coordinating that is a bit of a nightmare - brother got stuck with that. It could have been a larger group of guys - but we had one house, one guide, one snowcat .... so it was the first guys who committed.
I took 2 days in Tokyo pre-trip because I had never been. There were so many American men (not really - but we all stuck out) doing Tokyo pre-trip .... likely due to Ja-POW reputation, Epic/MC/Ikon pass .... we were all wearing our American mountain town gear while the Japanese looked awesome/put together/chic.
Guide
We hired a guide for the week - easier than dealing with a bunch of early 40 something men on where to ski. Our guided days were 1 Kiroro, 2 Niseko,1 Rusutsu.
We all brought ski-touring gear - not really necessary at resort lift style skiing in Niseko - but good for Kiroro or Rusutsu.
The guys who have heli-skied before listened to the guide .... others just said f-you....I'm going down at times.
The guide was pretty awesome - he would pick the group up in a van every day. Take us to onsens after ski. Showed us some of the best cheap sushi and Japanese dining often in Kutchan. Mostly he was dealing with us from 7 am -7 pm... Thank god. His season In Japan is mid-December to March 1st ... then back to New Zealand .... Niseko powder dries up in March.
House
We found a great house in Niseko. An Airbnb makes it much cheaper. We had a completely awesome pad - onsen, game room, boot dryers, big living space. Think - Chinese money is inflating a lot of costs.
Costs
With that many guys and a house - I paid about $1k for a week of guiding and lodging.
Bad Snow Year 2019-20
Yes - this was the worst snow year for Japan in decades. The north island recovered - Hokkaido. But the resorts on the main island - never really recovered. We had lower snow bases, but the quality was excellent. Never really hit a rock - just dodged or blasted through bamboo lower down. Ski bases were still 100"+. I think the season snowfall was around 400"+ up high.
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