HIT THE ROAD, JACK: SKIING JAPAN BY BUS
The lovely ‘Jack’ is primed and ready for two weeks of ski tour action, trekking between local resorts, where the wooded slopes are home to traditional Japanese architecture
Golden temples, wild bears and weightless powder on a road trip through Honshu’s Tohoku region and the Shiretoko Peninsula on Hokkaido
WORDS Andreas Hofer PHOTOS Andreas Hofer and Hirofumi Ishizaka
The taxi ride from Aomori Airport to downtown Hirosaki was both a journey into winter and into the provincial life of a Japanese small town stuck in the 1960s. The city centre, an unruly scramble of ugly high rises, post-war cottages and a scattering of quaint medieval and 19th century officialdom, was panting under relentless snowfall. Shop owners and dwellers were stoically shovelling snow from the sidewalks into open manholes, some of them, it seemed, clearly too frail and too old for the job.
After a walk through Hirosaki Castle's parkland, I soaked in the outdoor onsen of the Dormy Inn, waiting for Hiro. Hirofumi ‘Hiro’ Ishizaka has been my mountain guide in Japan for 15 years, and my culture, food and etiquette guide too. He was flying in from Sapporo to pick up his 14-seater bus, nicknamed ‘Jack’, to drive us to a spa hotel at the foot of Mount Iwaki-san (1,625m).
The Fuji-lookalike volcano is studded with ancient forests, holy shrines and two local ski areas, Hyakuzawa and Aomori Springs. It would be the first leg of a two-week road trip through Tohoku, the north-east of Japan’s main island Honshu, to be continued on the Shiretoko Peninsula on Hokkaido island.
We had our luggage and equipment scattered all over the truck, ready to ski wherever we drove by. It makes life much easier when you travel from mountain to mountain, staying somewhere new every day. The onsens and the cuisine vary like butterflies in Japan, and we couldn’t wait for what the next place might hold in store.
Japan’s smaller resorts allow you to mingle with local ski enthusiasts, old and young. It’s a stark contrast to the humdrum of Hokkaido’s international resorts. Hakuba and Niseko are crowded with skiers from all over Europe, China and Australia, partying in bars where English is lingua franca. But on Iwaki-san you have to speak Japanese – or rely on Hiro as an interpreter, like I do.
Iwaki-san’s Aomori Spring resort has just one gondola and four chairlifts covering 525m verticals on the north side of Peak Iwaki. Hyakuzawa ski resort, straddling the forests on the other side of the volcano, is even smaller, with three chairlifts and one Poma with a maximum elevation of 424m. Yet it is teeming with families, school groups and skiers from all walks of life.
GRANDPA THE BEAR HUNTER
The deciduous trees swooping down left and right from the groomed pistes of Hyakuzawa offered boundless powder descents, the snow so deep that the steepest drops could be skied slow-motion. We skied all day through thick snowfall, accompanied by Seiji Watanabe, ski instructor and Shinto priest in residence. We must have devoured 4,000 vertical metres that day, knowing that the hot springs of Hyakuzawa Onsen Hotel would heal our worked-out limbs. Content, we drove on to our next stop, Mount Gassan, 300km south.
After paying a visit to the 11th century Buddhist temple district of Chūson-ji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site – us being the only skiers gazing in wonder at Konjiki-dō, the
From left to right: A tour with a view: Andreas scales Mount Ubagadake. Honshu: where young and old ski side by side. The snow cat of the Konno family, bringing guests to the slopes (guide Hiro second from right)
Golden Temple, covered inside and outside in pure gold – we drove up to Shimizuyu Onsen, in close proximity to the single chairlift straddling the slopes of Ubagadake Peak, south west of Mount Gassan (1,984m).
There should be a temple somewhere up here, but it was buried in snow; the area is famous for its snowfall. The rickety chairlift starts operating in late May, and will run typically until the end of July. Now we would need the help of a snowcat to get over the plains towards the foot of the mountains – operated by the son of ‘Grandpa the bear hunter’. His wife Shjizu and the entire Konno family run the Shimizuyu Onsen Inn at the foot of Mount Gassan, five-star cuisine included. In the evening Grandpa proudly showed us a photo of the white-breasted Japanese bear his wife had cooked us for supper.
It was a day of ski touring in blazing sunshine, alone on 900 vertical metres of open, treeless terrain, with weightless powder skiing in the morning and spring snow frolicking in the afternoon, as the sun was bearing down on us with unusual strength early February.
From the ferry port of Tomakomai on Hokkaido to its Shiretoko Peninsula in the east would have been a 500km journey. Too much for a day, we decided, so we stopped over at the Maure Sanso in Maruseppu, usually frequented by wealthy Chinese. The hotel was auspiciously empty already. Conscious Corona-distancing had started in Japan four weeks earlier than in Europe, with the behemoth cruise liner Diamond Princess – full of infected passengers – famously not even allowed to berth. The sommelier was therefore happy to explain at great length Hokkaido’s most celebrated wines, which we sampled with zeal. Enthused, we would visit the winery of Tada Noen at the end of our trip.
Shiretoko is a protected nature resort, the haunt of whale spotters and birdwatchers from all over the world. The Japanese pilgrim there for the icebergs, which form when the Amur River hits Arctic currents in the Pacific north of Sakhalin. The east coast of Shiretoko, facing a narrow strait, tends to clog up with ice, piling wall-high up on the beaches and forming a solid mass of ice between Japanese land and the many islands that were occupied by Russia at the end of WWII and kept since.
SILENCE REIGNS SUPREME
Soon, Mount Mokoto-yama beckoned. The car park on this sunny day was filling up quickly with snowshoe hikers and ski tourers crawling about in the bushes and on the ridges. Measuring 996m, Mokoto-yama is a tiny volcano, yet with a spectacular view.
After two hours of skinning, we reached the needle-pointed summit, perched on top of a perfect scone, and looked down on two eye-shaped frozen lakes on each
Tree skiing in the lonely valleys of Rubeshi Dake… where solitude reigns and bears roam free
side of the ridge, with the Sea of Okhotsk in the distance. The locals had lots of fun tobogganing down the steep clearings. Their laughter was still ringing in my ears when, after a swift decent through woodland, we packed up our gear to head the Rausu Daiichi Hotel, another spa with hot springs frequented by bathers from the village.
The hotel is located on the main road leading to Mount Rausu (1,660m), the highest peak in the national park. The road was closed for winter, blocked by five metres of snow. We were intent to scale Higashi Dake (1,520m) instead, rising from the east coast of the peninsula.
Up the woodland beyond the coastal bamboo, and even more so on the treeless alpine slopes leading to the summit, only a thin layer of powder snow covered what must have been a many-months-old, solid ice sheet. The weather was glorious, yet after two hours we called it a day. Even our snowblades could not penetrate the ice.
Skiing the 800 vertical metres we’d climbed hesitantly was more fun than expected. The skis held well on the ice and we regretted having backed out. A sushi lunch at the fishing town of Rausu was a feast undeserved.
‘Shiretoko’ in the language of the vanquished, indigenous Ainu means ‘end of the earth’. I would assume that this was not meant just geographically. It is one of the last corners of the world where nature still dominates without opposition. Civilisation has hardly a foothold here. We are mere visitors.
Leaving the peninsula for Sapporo we made a last stop on a mountain pass crossing through Rubeshi Dake, Hiro’s playground. Few skiers ever come to ski these wind-sheltered, wooded slopes teeming with deer and Hokkaido bears. Silence reigns supreme.
We parked the car by the road curb, got our gear ready and started to explore valley after valley of solitude.
It snowed ceaselessly while we put in meticulous turns, run after run, in defiance of the fact that only a short while later they would have disappeared under fresh snow.
Hirofumi ‘Hiro’ Ishizaka is a UIAGM/IFMGA-certified mountain guide based in Sapporo, Hokkaido. To book him for your powder-hunting road trip email smt2007@wb3.so-net.ne.jp.
The Taiheiyo ferry from Sendai in Honshu to Tomakomai, Hokkaido, takes 15h 20m overnight, with luxury single or double cabins and en-suite bathrooms; restaurants offer dinner, breakfast and snacks all night. See taiheiyo-ferry.co.jp. First class cabins from £115 and from £208 for a car.
The Dormy Inn Hotel, Hirosaki has doubles from £90, including breakfast.
Hyakuzawa Onsen Hotel has doubles from £140, half-board.
Maure Sanso Hotel in Maruseppu has doubles from £180 per person, half-board.
Rausu Daiichi Hotel (rausu-daiichi-hotel.jp) has doubles
from £215, half-board.
The Shimizuyu Onsen Inn has doubles from £160, half-board.
Ski passes in the resorts mentioned cost approximately £35 for a day pass, dependent on season and exchange rate.
SKI JAPAN WITH THE SKI CLUB
Freshtracks offers a Japan Powder Pilgrimage trip to the legendary Hakuba Valley and Nozawa Onsen ski resorts. Hakuba comprises of 10 ski resorts that offer more vertical drop and challenging terrain than any other destination in Japan, while Nozawa Onsen is full of character, with its cobbled streets and 13 public onsens (thermal baths).
This winter the trip is running from 17 to 30 January 2021 and costs £3,649 per person, including 13 nights’ B&B, twin share, private minibus transfers, four days with mountain guides and six days’ social skiing. The trip is aimed at Advanced (Purple) and Expert (Gold) off-piste skiers.