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Konichiwa!

It has been about twelve days since I left the U.S. and began a three week adventure throughout the Japanese north island of Hokkaido in search of deep snow, fresh sushi, and whatever else may present itself. I flew into Sapporo in the middle of a snowstorm and met up with Nick DeVore, Jacqui Edgerly, and our photographer Gabe Rogel in the airport. Before leaving the states we had organized to be picked up by some friends of Nick’s mom and taken to Shimukappu. Shimukappu is a small town in the central mountains of Hokkaido and is one of Aspen’s sister cities. Nick had lived there when he was about seven and I had been there for a sister city exchange when I was ten. It was amazing to return to the town and see the people that we had met when we were younger. They are some of the kindest people I have ever met and they treated us to three straight days of eating and celebration. The day would start out with a multiple course traditional Japanese breakfast which was followed by another multiple course lunch. Then we would top it off with amazing dinners of fresh sushi, not a bad way to start the trip.

We said our goodbyes to the kind people of Shimukappu on the fourth day and headed up into the mountains outside of Furano to a Natural hotspring/backcountry lodge. After eating so much food and really doing nothing since we arrived, we were all stoked to get out and do some skiing. We drove up and up and the higher we got, the higher the snowbanks grew, until we were driving through a small white canyon. We finally got to the lodge to discover that it was extremely epic. Located about midway up the tallest mountain in Hokkaido, with touring out the front door and a large inside/outside hotspring or Onsen, we definitely had it made. It was here that we met up with Ian and Ben from Sweetgrass Productions and spent the next three days exploring the surrounding terrain and capturing it with film and photo. We weren’t able to get any real sunlight but it was snowing constantly and the powder was some of the lightest I have ever skied. The days were extremely cold as well so returning to the hotsprings after long days in the cold was amazing. We were able to get some decent footage and with Gabe Rogel shooting photos we definitely captured some awesome moments.

After a few more days in the cold, we heard that Niseko was supposed to get slammed by a few consecutive storms so we packed up our gear, loaded it in the Sweetgrass van and headed south to Niseko. The rest of the Sweetgrass crew was in Niseko in two apartments that they have rented for the winter in order to create their Japan project, a film based all in Japan with riders from many different places. We made it safely after a cramped five hour drive and passed out on the floor as soon as possible. We woke up to another gray day and decided to head out to check out a pillow zone that they had scoped out earlier. We were able to ski some extremely fun pillowy and crazy featured lines in some much warmer weather than we were used to. That night we did some major celebrating and got to know everybody much better. The best part was definitely the Sake’ limbo.

We spent the next day recovering while checking out the Japanese coastline and some amazing waves. When we got back to the apartment we were told of the epic Niseko night skiing so we geared up and headed to the resort for some night turns. Now I have never been night skiing before but this was not ordinary night skiing. The entire mountain was lit up totaling about 2 thousand vert and to add to the situation it was absolutely puking snow. We spent the next four hours shredding knee deep Japanese blower. It was by far one of the most amazing ski experiences of my life! We had so much fun that we returned the next day which was even deeper and skied a new run that was off the beaten path and pretty much untracked. There was just enough light to kind of see where you were going but it was skiing by feel for the most part. Gabe brought out his camera and captured some amazing night shots with a flash set-up. Another day that I will never forget.

The following day it went completely blue for the first time on the trip. We headed for this zone that Nick Waggoner from Sweetgrass had been saving for our arrival. This zone was one of the coolest looking slopes that I have seen anywhere. It had the typical Japanese trees on top but continued down into some prominent spines and fins. It was definitely fairly intense being that it was very steep and ended in a pretty bad terrain trap. Nick, Jacqui, Myself, and Marie Claude Larivee, a ripping chick from B.C. headed to the top and spent some time checking the snowpack. The pit that we dug was about eight feet deep and when we probed to find the ground the entire twelve foot probe disappeared before striking dirt. We all felt good about the stability and all were able to ski two epic lines. The slough was pretty intense but everyone managed their line very well and was stoked on a successful bluebird session. We ended the day with some beers in the Onsen (Japanese Hotspring) across the valley. The celebration continued into the night as Gabe and M.C. were leaving for home the next day. So we ate some more dank sushi and said our goodbyes to our new friends and fell asleep to visions of steep bluebird powder lines in japan.

Our trip continues and we hope to get in some more epic days in the near future. Check back to see what we get ourselves into next and until then here are some pics for your enjoyment.