After four jam packed days of heavy riding and sledding in Central Hokkaido, Japan, the blizzard was welcomed like a deep sleep. For two days the local mountains were shut and we took the opportunity to fill up on pancakes, coffee and much needed down time. As the storm began to clear on day two we stepped foot outside to assess the damage. Overhanging most of the driveway was a fully developed nine foot cornice, and after an attempt at bashing through it with one vehicle we succumbed to shoveling our way out of the house. In between shovel-fulls of snow Mt Yotei, the local volcano began to show its snow-covered flanks offering glimpses of how much snow had really fallen. Toshi, my Japanese friend caught wind the mountain was opening late in the afternoon and a nighter was called to order. If you haven’t heard, Grand Hirfau in Niseko probably has the best night shredding in the world and after being closed for two days the options were endless. Traversing out of the night-lights we dropped into dark tree runs, waist deep drifts and pillow drops galore, we scored the best of a late March dump laughing all the way and of course for the local’s price – free.
The following day gave way to bluebird skies so we decided to hit the Niseko backcountry to put a couple lines down Iwanoit and some other zones behind the main resort. A late start had us on the peak by 2:00 PM, enough time for three separate pitches, but as the sun began to set, so did the snow pack; by 5:00 PM the thick layer of sun-crust shut down any optimistic thoughts to drop any of the features littered on the slope. Although the best features went untouched, we kept the boards on the ground and found some really steep and fun lines back down to the carpark where a round of ice-cold Sapporo’s awaited our arrival in the snow-bank.
