The trip to the isolated island, Rishiri in the Sea of Japan was put on hold for a few days as another storm chased our tails from 6 AM from Niseko, down to Sapporo and north into Central Hokkaido. It was a game of tag all day, as the storm clouds billowed through sending snow spirals around the van packed full of the crew. This was the Black Diamond Guides trip after a hectic season bringing punters around the backcountry. This time it was our turn. We passed Clayton along the way with his truck full of sleds. Day 1’s Mission – head to a small closed ski resort, drop the sleds and proceed to shred with 4 snowmobiles in waist deep pow. Yup it sounds too good to be true, but what an epic day. The storm got full force as we ran doubles up to the top and back down. Let me tell you, if you are a green sled rider, a closed ski resort is the best place to learn. Headng back to the van to pick up 6 sets of snow shoes and poles, we ran one last lap to the top and sent a handful of the crew off into the backcountry as the light began to fade. Three of us happily took the sleds for another power hour ripping every bank like we were snowboarding. We didn’t pull out of there until well after dark but everyone was amping and the Black Mountain Lodge already had a crew warming it up.
The next day the heavy hitting locals crew went out and punished the local hill with no one in sight. Pillows, drops, cliffs, and some VT style tree shredding was in the cards. Another waist deep day made anything possible and we rode from 8:40 – 4:00. The whiskey bottles came out in force that night and the stories began around our own personal bar. Toshi ended up getting lucky with one of the cute lifties engraving him in Black Mountain History. Anyway, the next day was a late start and the hangovers felt like getting pounded over and over and over at a Mexican beach. We went up anyway for a big mission to explore some of the backcountry that was too appealing to be left alone. An hour hike through heavy wind and snow almost had us turn at the peak, but we continued on, across the moon like rocky surface and wrapped down through the cloud into an epic gully, which funneled us down into a valley where the walls grew into towers on both sides. One of the photos illustrates a gaping hole in the snow pack and a slab on top. Nearly killed myself on that one, but lucky escaped alive…Found out later it was 30 meter waterfall!
Anyway, I’ll save the next day for another story, but within 4 days we shredded more terrain than your average punter gets in a season. Japan – a place that gets better by the day.
