Japan

At the beginning of the week, I was still a little skeptical as the weather forecast was anything but rosy, i.e. snowy. With one eye on the precipitation radar, it took a few early morning online studies to decide where to go. The differences in terms of fresh snow and weather were pretty extreme, even in this relatively small region.

It was that time again a week ago. The last working day for the next three months. The most beautiful time of the year has begun and with it another snow adventure in Japan. I will be traveling in Japan until the beginning of March, mainly in Hakuba but also in regions such as Myoko, Nagano and the northern island of Niseko. The weather and especially the annual rain will determine when and where we will be.

Patrick Fux, who has provided us with great powder pictures from Japan over the past few weeks, had left Japan for British Columbia, Canada, shortly before the dramatic earthquake and subsequent tsunami and the nuclear disaster that was omnipresent in the media. None of Patrick's friends or the Hakuba Powder crew were injured. Nevertheless, the reports from the news naturally make all the powder experiences and problems that you can have as a freerider much less important. Nevertheless, we have decided to bring you the last three episodes of the Japan-Canada winter trip.

Some fresh snow had fallen on Monday, but not enough to get me seriously excited. Time to write down the last few days and prepare for the first few days in Canada.

You will look in vain for top-class freeride action or railslides in this freeride film. With Signatures, Sweetgrass Productions present their second film, which once again offers a different perspective on deep snow and off-piste skiing away from the mainstream. An absolute must-see!

As we work in the snowboard industry, we are involved in our favorite activity, snowboarding, more or less all year round. So much for the theory. Here's how it can actually be.

From Sapporo, we first went to Niseko/Hirafu, a very fine freeride area with pretty good powder runs. The amount of snow was enormous, in the valley there was already over 2 meters of snow - note the incredible altitude of 200m! So, come along on the trip...

Winter sports are not particularly exotic in Japan, but a popular sport. The country offers ideal conditions for this. The country is criss-crossed by mountains and is so hilly and mountainous that only just under 30% of the land is flat enough to be built on. This is where the cities are concentrated, where people live in dense crowds.