Well, after the massive disappointment that was the 2013 Australian ski season, I was looking forward with hope to the 2014 season. May came and went, as did June, with bugger all snow. Then Snowmageddon happened, a huge season starting dump. This was followed by Snowmageddon II another massive dump.
I had been lucky to score some great resort skiing corresponding to the falls, then finally, last week, the stars aligned for a backcountry trip. Gear was recovered from off season storage hidey holes, reconnections were made with grizzly ski buddies, feet were taped and hamstrings were stretched.
We arrived at Thredbo early, marveled at the beauty of the day and caught the lift up, saving our lazy selves the 400m climb up from dead horse gap. With our steely backcountry gaze we left the hecticness of the resort and made our way to The Ramshead and Leather Barrel Creek, our destination for the day. As always, the view to the south and west was spectacular.
Always love the view to the south and west
Transition time with the Twin Humps
Into the Leather Barrel
I watched Belly dropped in to The Couloir and carve some beautiful turns into the fresh snow.
Belly in the lower section of The Couloir
Rohan and I skied a different line to the south, into the Golden Gully, an incredible shaped gully with beautiful snow.
Me dropping down to the Golden Gully
The push and transition at Leather Barrel Creek was spectacular.
Beautiful down in Leather Barrel Creek
As usual, I was exceedingly slow in my transition as I mucked around with my camera(s) and gear. This gave Rohan a chance to climb up around 50m and sneak some turns in.
Rohan in some great snow in Leather Barrel Creek
Belly was a little further to the north owing to his first run. We all met up at the top of the Twin Humps. Despite the beautiful view, we quickly transitioned and dropped in as it was crazy windy.
View to the Ramshead Range from the Twin Humps
Looking down the Twin Humps
The first 50m from the Twin Humps were super sketchy due to windy, rimey, icey crap. We all managed some safety turns until the good snow started a little lower. Not just good snow, blower Australian pow, a rare treat.
Rohan finds the soft stuff
He loves the DPS
My turn
We spent the next few hours working our way north along the big face. Skin, ski, eat, repeat. Exceptional conditions provided we didn't go to high into the icey wind affected stuff.
Belly found some nice open spaces
We could see lots of people out enjoying the conditions
Great skiing on the lower slopes
These guys took on the skin from hell
We took our time climbing out of Leather Barrel Creek up to The Ramshead. Rohan, being ridiculously fit, dropped into our first line one more time. Belly and I were shattered and pushed on to the peak.
On our way up The Spur
Some of our lines from our morning run, another group of three also hit it
Belly, I also had plenty of these moments
The last 50m of vertical were really sketchy. I had misplaced my crampons over summer so had to manage with just my skins. I found a sliver of snow and just got enough purchase to make it up, it was pretty scary. Crossing to the east, over the Ramshead Range, things settled down and Rohan and I took a break. Belly, gaining some sort of second (or third, or fourth) wind claimed The Ramshead.
View to the south
And to the south east
We had a pretty cruisy ski back to Thredbo. What was not cruisy was skiing our worn out legs down the late afternoon frozen, crowded, whatever km length Supertrail (5.9, 3.4 I don’t know but it’s the longest run in Australia). My legs were jelly, I spent pretty much the entire time in an ungainly survival sideslip.
Getting to the car and pulling off my boots I felt a joy I had not felt for many months. A sly content smile, a warn out body and a pair of battered feet in a cosy pair of ugg boots.
A bunch of us had an amazing couple of weeks skiing some of the resorts of Hokkaido Prefecture back in Feb. For this trip, my fourth, we hired a van, piled in each morning and hit the road. We ended up skiing 5 resort areas; Hanazono/Hirafu, Chisenupuri, Rusutsu, Moiwa and Kiroro. I still love Moiwa but can’t wait to get back to Kiroro. The snow was epic, the food cheap and delicious and the Japanese continue to be some of the most endearing people I have come across. Ill let the photos do the rest of the talking.
Our beast courtesy of the Black Diamond Tours
Um where are we?
On the road
The always photogenic Mt Yotei
Snowy road
The scenery is just beautiful
Pulled over for some more Mt Yotei action
Moiwa is a small resort next to the very busy Niseko United. It only has two lifts but you pretty much just hang out on the main quad. The skiing is incredible for how small it is.
The Moiwa quad
The ski outs take you through these incredible snowy meadows
I love Moiwa!
The Moiwa public transport... not running
Moiwa avalanche rescue dog
We spent a day at Rusutsu where last year I skied incredibly deep snow. This year is wasn't quite so good but we still scored some nice snow in the trees. The hotel was a spin out as usual, the most amazing Japanese kitsch. Its kind of hard to describe, you really have to visit it to experience it for yourself.
Looking back to the hotel and beginner area from the main ski area,
The volcano behind the hotel, skiable but had gnarly cracks this year
Kiroro was a new resort for me this year, and what a hill! We spent the morning stuffing around in some tight trees trying to work out the resort. I was skiing the 138mm wide DPS Spoons which were incredible in the knee deep powder on offer. Myself and my buddy Bruno had a moment where we ended up on top of a sinkhole into a creek on about a 50deg icey slope while exploring the off piste around Mt Asari. I safely traversed above the hole but it was petty scary. The Spoons with their full reverse camber and sidecut made it even more interesting.
After lunch we went to a run simply called "Powder Zone". Incredibly it was waist deep an untracked! We lapped it four times until it got to dark to see (the lifts keep running as there is extensive night skiing) without seeing another person.
Beautiful snowy pines at Kiroro
Freecy in some off piste from Mt Asari
Bruno in the Powder Zone
Freecy
Pete the bastardo
More Pete, sometimes being short has its benefits
My turn in front of the lens on the Spoons but the light was crappy
DPS Spoons loving the soft stuff
Hirafu is the main resort of the four that make up Niseko United. Most of the accommodation and restaurants are within Hirafu Village, where we were based for our trip. We had a couple of days skiing Hirafu and Hanazono to the north.
Hirafu
One of the many amazing restaurants in Hirafu Village
Chisenupuri is a tiny resort west of Niseko United. Tiny in that the whole resort is a double chair which is operated by what looks like the local farmers. There is extensive lift accessible off piste terrain which we spent the day exploring. The touring looks phenomenal unfortunately we had neither the gear or the time to head out safely. Hopefully next trip!
Chisen BC, spoke to the fellas who laid these tracks and they were pretty stoked
More BC action from Chisen
Looking east, back towards Mt Annupuri and Mt Yotei and the BC terrain of Niseko United
The lift to the goods with Chisen peak beyond
Bruno went a bit low, haha
No trip to Japan would be complete without getting away from the resorts and experiencing some culture. I had planned to get to Sapporo but unfortunately my train was late so had to settle for Otaru, a small coastal city to the north of Hirafu.
Icey train to Otaru
Walking mall Otaru
That cold beach, one day I would love to surf it in the snow
A thing I love about Japan is the amazing kitsch. Every product service, message or whatever is accompanied by hilarious little designs.
Vegetable girl
Don't drink beer, your tummy will be upset
Hi guys!
Donkey
Hand drawn fat steam bun
Love no smoking?
The boys at Rhythm in Hirafu helped us put up a plaque in memory of Fitzy, who tragically passed away in Japan last year.
The boys went home while I stayed on a for a few more days as my parents, sister, her boyfriend and a bunch of family friends had also come over for a ski. I spent a the last days having a great time skiing around with the family. My parents were tearing up the pow!
Dad has to stop at every restaurant to read the menu
The crew and a massive snow bank
Mum, my siser, a massage chair and a funny man who was staying at the pension and was the unofficial master of the chair
My favourite, big ramen
Stoked on an awesome trip
Massive thanks to the boys at Rhythm Niseko for letting us take all their best skis.
If you aren't already sick of ski edits, here is a little one I put together. Conscious of the copious POV clips around I made this one pretty quick fire and tried to include some different angles and other stuff to make it interesting. Some fireworks at the start before the tune kicks in, enjoy!
