Japan

The ski safari reports from Japan and North America by Zurich freeskier Patrick Fux aka Paedde (powdermania.com) are hard to imagine life without, except perhaps if you were there yourself and plowed the Japanese powder masses together with Patrick. Thanks to Patrick, you can now find out again how Japan dumps and powders or even rains. The only change compared to previous years' ski safari reports is that this year we have decided to let the pictures speak for themselves. Because photos sometimes, but by no means always, say more than many words.

Nick Kowal is the owner of the Hakuba Powder Lodge. In a short interview I asked Nick a few questions about life in Japan, his dreams, a year after Fukushima and more.

The week started with a bit of fresh snow, but it wasn't quite able to make up for the thaw damage of the previous week. On Tuesday, all was right with the world again: lots of fresh snow and brilliantly cold late winter conditions. On Wednesday, the weather was glorious and it was backcountry time again, although the avalanche situation didn't allow any slopes steeper than 30 degrees. We had two great descents, but then the situation became too dicey:

The short version: It sucks, it sucks big time, it sucks a bit more every single day and it seems to suck a bit more hour by hour. No idea how to say that in proper German.

Last Monday, the chapter on how easy snow can be was rewritten, so to speak: Another day in Furano and knee-deep powder snow at its very best. The whole day alone in the ski resorts and no one to help track the fresh snow, that was quite a lot of work, but we enjoyed it immensely. The ski patrol didn't seem to take such a strict view of the whole thing and let us get on with it.

It was already announced last week, and so the start of spring actually drove us north to Furano and Kurodake. It was an arduous journey, but we didn't regret it.

As already mentioned, the cat and mouse game with the Ski-Patrol has become more difficult – and the cat has actually won again. The spoilsports from the Ski Patrol are now hiding and waiting for hours for mice if they have to. Very annoying as I can no longer ski in an entire ski area and I particularly like the forest runs there. According to unofficial sources, a previously liberal area even wants to ban and strictly control everything off-piste from next season. In many places in Japan, the people in charge simply don't understand what we freeriders want?

All was still right with the world on Monday. Perfect weather and great snow for two runs far away from the pistes. The weather forecast was very unfavorable, so we had to hurry. By midday, the powder fun was over and 35 mm (= 37 liters / sqm) of rain in 24 hours was the result of a warm front. Snow was already falling again on Wednesday, but unfortunately it got very cold first and so everything was frozen solid.

I thought I had perfected the cat-and-mouse game with the Skipatrol by now: but this year the cat is doing better. The same Skipatrol caught me twice in the same place within a week. Luckily I was wearing different clothes each time and so he didn't recognize me. Uffz, otherwise that would have meant the withdrawal of my season ticket. I can probably put this downhill route out of my mind for this winter and watch my colleagues from afar while they continue to make their turns there. Everything else seems to be a little more difficult this year with the boys in red.

A storm was forecast for Monday night, which should have ended our boredom. Unfortunately, once again nothing came of it. Far too warm and only 1 cm of fresh snow - and windy to boot. This would be the fifth day without skiing and somehow it feels more like spring than winter outside. The forecasts from Wednesday onwards are still excellent, so we'll just have to be patient for a few more days. The weather service is talking about a storm of the decade. But it's going to feel like a long time: if you're not much of a piste skier, you won't have much to do here in Hakuba when it gets warm.

Hakuba has many beautiful sides and unfortunately also a few dark sides: A glance at the globe shows that southern Spain is at the same latitude as Hakuba, so it is not surprising that the sun is already quite strong in January. Many a European has wondered how impressive a Japanese sunburn can be in January. As soon as we see the blue sky here, the southern slopes are usually already unrideable, as the snow is literally baked by the sun.

Fortunately, there was no rain and the week started with a forecast of 1 cm of fresh snow overnight. The joy of waking up to 50 cm of fresh snow was immense. The day could easily be described as heliskiing for the price of a day ticket, although it would be more accurate to say heliskiing-for-the-price-of-two-day-tickets.