Earlier in January I was lucky to spend six amazing days backcountry skiing in Hokkaido, the northernmost (and snowiest) major island of Japan. After a busy fall of travel, I wasn’t planning on leaving the country again so soon; when my cousin Will called me up to ask if I was interested in skiing in Japan, I told him no. A few weeks later, when I heard that he and Adam were planning on going without me, the fomo was too much and I booked flights to join for the first half of the trip 😅.
We mixed up the groups here and there, but the core five of us (Adam, Will, John, Ben, and myself) got in a bunch of great ski days in a wide range of conditions from stormy to bluebird. There is simply so much ski terrain in Hokkaido that even after six days of skiing, I felt like I had barely seen the island. The skiing on Hokkaido was also fun because it is so different from the skiing back in Washington: incredibly light snow, much gentler mountains with less steep terrain and less alpine terrain, and deciduous forests full of birch trees that look truly magical when blasted with snow.
Day 1: After a delayed flight and a long snowy drive to Furano the night before, we got a slow start heading up to Furano-dake, the southernmost mountain in the Tokachi Volcanic Group and part of Daisetsuzan (“Great Snowy Mountains”) National Park, one of the largest national parks in Japan. We met up with two of John’s friends at the trailhead, and headed out for some storm skiing below treeline. After a healthy dose of first day faffing, including heading up too early and getting split up on the skin track, we enjoyed several great (but short) laps of tree skiing.
Adam skiing in the trees on the north side of Furano-dake.
John boosting off a stump in the forest on Furano-dake.
With the slow start and big group, we stayed out until dark to get as much skiing as possible. After making our way back to the car park, we were thoroughly damp, chilled, and tired, and it was quite dark. Rather than head back to our hotel, we decided to head just a few kilometers down the road to Fukiage Onsen, a natural (and undeveloped) hot spring that we had heard was lovely.
As it was dark, I didn’t get any photos of the onsen, but our visit was one of the most memorable parts of the trip. It was about 5 degrees Fahrenheit when we arrived, with easily six feet of snow on the ground, and more falling from the sky. The onsen was a snowy 200 yard walk from the car, and we were all chilly and a bit hangry. Foolishly, despite having headlamps, Ben and I left ours in the car despite it being pitch black outside. We all walked to the onsen, which we had essentially all to ourselves. Adam stuck his hand in the first pool and confidently announced “this feels like a great temperature!” yet the idea of stripping to the nude under the frigid night sky seemed quite daunting. Will, the bravest of all of us, decided to set a good example, and pulled off his ski clothes, nearly slipping on the ice on the edge of the pool on his way in. When he stepped into the water, however, he squealed in pain: what Adam had concluded was a nice temperature was in fact scaldingly hot, and the remaining four of us watched with entertained horror as Will oscillated vertically, simultaneously burning his lower half while his upper body was still freezing. There was one local who was just leaving as we arrived, and although he didn’t speak any English and we didn’t speak any Japanese, Will’s frantic cursing and moaning needed no translation.
We collected our casualty and made a tactical retreat, then eventually all five of us got in one of the lower, cooler pools, and we had a lovely soak in the snowy forest before heading back to Furano.
Day 2: With another stormy day in the forecast, we opted to stay closer to our hotel, and took a few laps in the “premium zone” at the Furano resort before heading out of the ski area boundary to ride the lift-accessed backcountry. It snowed hard during the morning, but the precipitation tapered off into the afternoon, and we even got a little bit of sun! There’s lots of great top-to-bottom laps accessible with some hiking or skinning out of the ski area boundary, and we had a great day.
John skiing some lightly tracked pow during a sunny moment, with Furano Nishi-dake in the backround.
Day 3: We woke up to a stunning sunrise in Furano, and felt optimistic about our plan to head up to Asahi-dake, the tallest summit on Hokkaido. With the forecast calling for a break in the storms, we hoped we might have an opportunity to poke up into the alpine, but as we drove north on the beautiful winding road, it became clear that the weather on Asahi-dake would not be, well, clear.
We took the Asahi-dake Ropeway up to treeline, and stepped out of the top terminal into an absolute ping pong ball whiteout. With the alpine out of the question, we skied down into the forest, through some magical trees that looked straight out of a fairy tale, and had a great day skiing blower powder on the one part of Asahi-dake that has some steeper terrain, which unfortunately meant it was fairly crowded. Nonetheless, we had a lot of fun getting in a bunch of short laps among the birches.
Adam skiing some low angle trees below the top terminal of the Asahi-dake Ropeway.
Will, John, and Adam skiing out of the forest on Asahi-dake.
Can you spot Adam?
John in the chest-deep pow
Ben stands out from the white forest in his yellow jacket
Day 4: With a lucky stroke of clear weather, we were able to tag the summit of Ashibetsu-dake, the tallest mountain in the Yubari Mountains, and ski from the top in amazing conditions, along with great views of the rest of the range. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me.
Furano town and ski resort as seen from our hotel. Furano Nishi-dake is the summit at far left, which we skied the following day.
We had another gorgeous sunrise in Furano, and headed just a few minutes out of town to reach the trailhead. Unlike most of the other skiing we did, we started in the lowlands, at the very bottom of the mountain range, and skied all the way up to the summit, barely seeing another soul. This made Ashibetsu-dake feel quite different from the rest of the tours I did, which all had many relatively short laps.
We started off in the sunshine, and followed a long, meandering ridge up towards the treeline. Eventually the old skinner we were following ended, and we broke trail until we popped into a broad, gentle meadow. The structure of Ashibetsu-dake is interesting, with its eastern slopes being fairly steep at lower elevations, with a gentle bench at treeline below the steeper summit pitches. The clouds had been swirling around the higher parts of the mountain all morning, and we weren’t certain if the visibility would be conducive for a summit push.
Adam beneath one of Ashibetsu-dake’s craggly subsummits.
With uncertain weather, we hmmed and hawed about what to do, but ultimately decided to head towards the false summit, hoping that things would clear up for us. Our bet paid off, and as Adam broke trail, the clouds dissipated, and when we reached the false summit we were rewarded with a great view of the true summit, not far away. We decided to go for it, and traversed over to the last pitch below the top, which we booted up through deep snow. The summit itself was plastered with rime ice and felt almost as though we were on a different planet.
Adam and Will on the skintrack below the false summit of Ashibetsu-dake
Adam down-skinning along the ridge between the false and true summits of Ashibetsu-dake
John, Adam, and Will booting up the last few feet below the summit
Somehow, despite being the tallest point around, the northeastern slopes below the summit had avoided being blasted by the strong winds which are common to the area, we skied blower powder directly off the summit - an amazing lap, with steep slopes up high leading down into a beautifully forested drainage above the meadowed bench.
Adam skiing off the summit of Ashibetsu-dake, with the rest of the Yubari Mountains stretching to the north behind him.
John skiing hippy powder a little lower
With our remaining daylight rapidly dwindling, we threw our skins back on and headed back up to the false summit, eager to get one more lap in before our remaining 3,000+ feet of skiing down to the car. The sun dimmed behind high clouds, but the exit itself ended up being super fun, with a long descent down a steep drainage that eventually funneled us into some creek hole spiciness. We climbed out of the creek and back to our approach skin track, then skied back down the ridge towards the road, which was a bit confusing by headlamp. After one last short skin, we made it back to the cars well after dark, happy with a fantastic day.
Will on his way up for a second lap.
Fun skiing down our exit drainage
Adam and Will dodging some creek hole/waterfall silliness
Day 5: We said goodbye to Ben, who was heading back to the US, and headed back to the Furano backcountry for a half day before driving back to Sapporo, where we were swapping vehicles later that afternoon. Even though we only had a few hours to ski, we still were able to ski over to Furano Nishi-dake and tour all the way along the ridge, under beautiful bluebird skies, before taking two laps down into the drainage between it and the ski area. The summit ridge of Furano Nishi-dake was steep and corniced, and afforded nice views to the south, dominated by Ashibetsu-dake, which we had just skied the day before.
Touring through the forest on Furano Nishi-dake.
Ashibetsu-dake’s steep northern slopes, as seen from the corniced summit ridge of Furano Nishi-dake. We skied roughly the left hand skyline of Ashibetsu-dake the day before.
John skiing the north slopes of Furano Nishi-dake
Day 6: With another stormy day forecast, we drove west from Sapporo onto the Oshima Peninsula and headed to Kiroro, closer to the Sea of Japan, which meant more precipitation and warmer temperatures. For my last day skiing, I wanted to get a big day in, so we toured from Kiroro just west of the ski area, and busted out a bunch of great storm skiing laps in the steep forested hills. With countless faces, ridgelines, and drainages, we had lots of exploring to do, and didn’t see so many people. With a cloudy sunset just a few minutes away, we hurried up the skin track, and I was able to hit just over 8,000 feet of touring for the day, despite a leisurely start. It was a great way to end my ski trip, but the trip wasn’t over.
After heading back to the car, we headed down to Otaru and had a lovely time relaxing in the onsen there before the remaining boys dropped me off at the train station to head back home, while they all had several more days of fantastic skiing.
John skiing an open glade above Kiroro.
John, Adam, and Will skinning up for another lap
Above treeline it felt quite stormy!
In the forest, though, the skiing was deep! Here’s Will up to his chest.