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adventure & travel

Spring-Skiing Japan 2015 | Part 3

Wet Dreams in the Hida Mountains, III: Shirouma Southeast

05/14/2015

Zach Paley

The Southeast Face is on the looker's left. The top third of it at least.

Zach Paley

Japan

On Honshu, the transition from winter to spring can be painful. In March, temperatures rise, but the mountain weather remains as wild as ever. The result is rapid and violent transitions from heat and sun to rain, cold, snow and heavy doses of wind.

However, when the Gobi Desert dust finally settles and stable weather windows materialize, opportunities arise to ride big, beautiful lines that are truly world class. The reward is even sweeter when you've had to wait and watch through all the big storms and wild weather. When a weather window does come your way, it's important to take full advantage of it, because you never know when one will come again. With that in mind, we decided to follow up our Shakushi day with Shirouma's Southeast Face. Shirouma is Hakuba's highest peak, and it's Southeast Face is a huge, smooth ramp that can offer fantastic spine skiing, if your timing is right.

Photo gallery

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Spring-Skiing Japan 2015 | Part 5

05/22/2015 • Zach Paley

Continuing with the theme of objectives not immediately in view from the window, the Northeast Couloir of Shakushidake entices the ambitious when viewed from popular resorts to the north of the valley. However dreamy this line seems from afar, it requires an early start just to get to. And like most things in Hakuba, the weather windows are few and far between. It requires much tenacity to get this line in good snow.
Spring-Skiing Japan 2015 | Part 4

05/18/2015 • Zach Paley

Rather than a dreamy peak observed from our window, Goryudake hides a bit further back with a less straightforward approach. When observed from the correct angle, its diamond shaped rock formations become obvious, revealing a couloir seemingly cut by Zorro himself. It's a tantalizingly close, deceptively far objective that usually requires a tent and some luck.
Spring Japan 2015 | Part 2 - steep!

05/08/2015 • Zach Paley

One cool thing about Hakuba is that many of the biggest, most aethetic lines are clearly visible from town. Every sunny morning, one can scan the surrounding terrain for signs of instability for the day ahead. While doing this, we usually dream about making turns on many of these lines. Shakushi's Southeast face, and its spines catch the eye very quickly, though the right opportunity to get on this face has eluded us for years. In late March, an opportunity finally presented itself.