The Japanese Alps
Hakuba has been very good to us. When we arrived here Monday night, it was dumping snow. The next day we rode resort at Happo One. Conditions in the trees were all time. Nobody seems to ride off piste there so the trees were completely untouched. We definitely scored some of that classic Japanese blower pow.
Wednesday and Thursday we toured with Evergreen Backcountry Guides. Our guide Nate was awesome. He's a splitboarder from Colorado who has been guiding since 2009. He had excellent backcountry protocol and was very fun to ride with. I would definitely recommend Evergreen to anyone looking to get into the Hakuba backcountry. They also handled the guiding for Travis Rice during filming in Japan for The Fourth Phase.
Wednesday's tour offered pow laps in the trees due to avalanche concern above treeline. We toured from Tsugaike Ski Area and did a traverse over to Norikura Ski Area. We definitely got our powder fix on that tour!
Thursday went bluebird and the winds became nonexistent. Those conditions allowed us to push into the alpine. We also got our first glimpse of the Japanese Alps. A good amount of the terrain in the Alps can't be ridden. The terrain is very complex and everything ends in a terrain trap. That being said, I swear I will come back and ride some of those lines someday. That's the thing about trophy lines, they're almost impossible to get.
We had probably our best line of the trip on Thursday. We summited Norikura-dake and rode a steep, sustained slope with stable pow. By the time we did another mellow pow run and did a combination of split-skiing and splitboarding on the exit, the sun was already setting. It's always a good feeling to be out on a tour literally all day.
Right now it's raining here in Hakuba. Perfect weather for taking an off day. We will most likely try to tour Saturday and Sunday before heading back to Salt Lake on Monday. It looks like the Wasatch has been getting hammered while we've been gone so it will be good to get back.
Wednesday and Thursday we toured with Evergreen Backcountry Guides. Our guide Nate was awesome. He's a splitboarder from Colorado who has been guiding since 2009. He had excellent backcountry protocol and was very fun to ride with. I would definitely recommend Evergreen to anyone looking to get into the Hakuba backcountry. They also handled the guiding for Travis Rice during filming in Japan for The Fourth Phase.
Wednesday's tour offered pow laps in the trees due to avalanche concern above treeline. We toured from Tsugaike Ski Area and did a traverse over to Norikura Ski Area. We definitely got our powder fix on that tour!
Thursday went bluebird and the winds became nonexistent. Those conditions allowed us to push into the alpine. We also got our first glimpse of the Japanese Alps. A good amount of the terrain in the Alps can't be ridden. The terrain is very complex and everything ends in a terrain trap. That being said, I swear I will come back and ride some of those lines someday. That's the thing about trophy lines, they're almost impossible to get.
We had probably our best line of the trip on Thursday. We summited Norikura-dake and rode a steep, sustained slope with stable pow. By the time we did another mellow pow run and did a combination of split-skiing and splitboarding on the exit, the sun was already setting. It's always a good feeling to be out on a tour literally all day.
Right now it's raining here in Hakuba. Perfect weather for taking an off day. We will most likely try to tour Saturday and Sunday before heading back to Salt Lake on Monday. It looks like the Wasatch has been getting hammered while we've been gone so it will be good to get back.