Today we finally decide my second favourite place to ski in central Hokkaido.
Wind loaded front mountain and cross loaded back country, nuff said. This place received the ‘last wring’ of the weather system from the north west and the snow here was classed as ‘Super Dry’. It ran through my fingers like powder and you could forget about snow ball fights here. We were quite a little late to enjoy the silky smooth slopes in the morning, but that did not matter because the back was exactly there for the ‘not so morning people’.
I could not believe it when we got to the drop zone to find a perfectly smooth mountain below us, hero snow, hero gradient, hero trees (debatable). ‘Woohoos’ were not optional today, they were voluntarily mandatory. There were times when aggressive GS style ripping of slopes should take a back seat to some old school wiggle skiing, and today was one of those occasions. Harro and John would be proud as I did just that. We wiggled our way in what appeared to be super slow motion down to the traverse elevation to get back to the front. To my surprise there were pink tape 20m vert below the traverse line marked on the trees. This place’s secret was finally out and the crowd, no doubt would be here in force in the seasons to come.
(Click on image to enlarge)
We succumbed to the allure of the silky smoothness and skied down until it started to flatten out. It was time to pay for those turns – skins on and heels freed, we were ready to hike back up for a lunch date, fashionably late. It was those transient bursts of ecstatic moments that only a skier would know, but find it hard to explain. It was fair to say I had a few of those moments.
Just for the record, if you were asked to add cheese to your meal, I think you should. Food here was amazing. Sadly we did not get to try the chocolate brownie this time, a minor glitch to an otherwise awesome day.
We finished up with 2 more hot laps round the back and a run in the snow park. I chose to omit the little embarrassment at the carpark here, but would mention the happy-sad goodbye that only special people would elicit. Laterz ‘The Freed Thing’. What an amazing 2 days of skiing and making friends on powder days! Much love.
Tomamu, I love you…. after Furano that is.
Make Friends On A Powder Day 