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Jim McDonald

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Tokyo
Always (Always!) go for the filet!
 

Eleeski

Making fresh tracks
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Nov 13, 2015
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2,287
Location
San Diego / skis at Squaw Valley
Can't you do rice? There is quite a bit of rice in Japan....

Yeah, my brother's rice farm in Marysville CA sells all his production to Japan! Maybe I can go as his sales rep?

My son will be working there for at least a year. next winter, I feel a trip happening. This is awesome info for me. Thanks!

Eric
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Apr 24, 2017
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Granby, CO
Day 15: Jan 17th – Kokusai

We decided to roll the dice a little bit this day and ski a completely new line. Susan was having a rest day (she’d not been sleeping well and her knee was sore) and Zach had gone with Jeremy’s group to Teine. Gary and Paul were focused on trying to find the best snow possible and I thought that would still be Kokusai. This time we’d hike way out past our favorite ridgeline to the next ridge out. This would be a bigger skin potentially, but it’s hard to judge distances, so who knew exactly how far it would be.

Both of the guys knew this would be a new area for me and that if the weather turned around, we’d be out of there quickly. There’d be no messing about on this run. So off we went/ We took our usual line out past our ridge but this time, stayed high. We got a great feel for exactly how big this ridge actually is, it took a while to get to the true top of it. The wind was pretty constant and as much as we wanted to see over the top and get (potentially a view over to Kiroro), it was adding too much time to go all the way up. We cut a bit of a corner and found ourselves on a decent peak. Now we could see over the other side but could not see Kiroro.

The clouds were thickening up but we could still see all the way back down to our resort so we pressed on. We had to ski a face that was potentially wind-loaded. I gave it a little test and sure enough, it cracked and a small slab gave way. There was a convex roll over that I wanted nothing to do with so we scooted back to the left and dropped a more mellow part of the face. After a couple of turns the snow was good, not very deep but nice and smooth. We skied the side of the face one at a time and then regained the ridge and climbed another small peak. That was definitely a safer option.

The clouds started to roll in again and we weren’t confident about reaching the biggest peak that we had initially scoped. We had been going for an hour (not too bad) and decided it was getting too close with the weather so we dropped in. We followed an obvious ridgeline down and then came into a more protected gully that we couldn’t really get out of. The snow was quite nice in the gully but it didn’t go for long enough.

We were still pretty high up and it was looking like a long traverse back out. I was concerned that if we kept pushing, then we might get caught on the right side of the creek where it gets steep and very bushy. That could make for a pretty miserable time, so I pulled rank and suggested we put skins on and regain the big ridge to our left where we had a relatively easy crossing. It might be more work, but at least it was a better chance of an unimpeded exit. Who knows how much of a struggle it would have been to have to continued traversing on the right side. Why risk it…..

It turned out it was a good call. We gained some height and made it onto the big ridgeline. It was a very easy traverse back to the skier’s left side of the ridge. I was happy we went that way and not continued to roll the dice. It was also good to see the skier’s right side of the ridge and how easy it was to get out. That was good intel. Then it was across the next creek and a quick bootpack up towards the resort ridge, then ski out. It was close to 1pm by this stage (we’d only bought a 1 ride ticket) so we had some lunch and called it a day.

Susan, Zach, Gary and myself then went out for some drinks and dinner. We stopped in at the brewery for a beer and then as luck would have it, my favorite BBQ place 2 doors down was finally open. I hadn’t been in there all trip as it was closed the whole time. So we went in and had some meat and fish BBQ which was awesome. Susan and Gary each had one of the massive raw oysters that they have. They really liked that. All in all a fun day with some good exploring, but I don’t think this was the best line of all-time. It was a bit too short for the effort put in. Next time, with better visibility, we should keep skinning up further and ski the highest point there. That would be a better ski down with more vertical and an easier out I think. Time will tell!

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The start of our adventure, using our old skin track and making life easier......


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Starting to get up high and above the treeline.


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Before the clouds started to come in. The line we skied is the first set of trees behind the treeless ridgeline in the foreground.


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We had one section of an open face to ski to get down to the start of our ridgeline. There was an old collapsed cornice that had gone big and definite wind-loading on the main face. I pulled us back off that slope and had us ride close to the side, after I kicked off a decent chunk of windslab when I did my first ski cut.


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The turns were still fun though.


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@Big Salad getting in some nice turns.


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Stoked my favorite BBQ joint next to the brewery was finally open again! @Zach, @Big Salad and @SBrown about to get cooking.


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The biggest and freshest oysters in Otaru! @Big Salad approved!

- Matt
 

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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Now that the small earthquake in Chitose has passed, I'll post the next day's skiing.....


Day 16: 18th Jan – Asarigawa Onsen

We had a couple of options this day but with no new snow and warming temps, we decided to keep it somewhat local and head to Asari. I told the others I didn’t know Asari too well as I’d only skied there once before. I did like the Katsudon at the restaurant and that was enough to sway people to want to go. It was just Susan, Gary and Paul (Zach had gone with Jeremy’s group to Teine). It was almost a spring day with the sun out and very warm temps, not what you necessarily want in the middle of the winter……

There are 3 main chairs (2 double and 1 triple) and we took them to the top. The views of Asari and the coast were awesome. At the top we went into the trees on the skier’s left on a more notherly aspect and there were plenty of untouched lines to be had. It was somewhat heavy snow but still fun. You get decent vertical but it’s not steep. We did another lap and then headed down lower. There are some fun lines to be had near the golf course clubhouse and we found a really steep face with small cornice on top, leading to some open trees. This run then leads to a flatter area with 3 small dam walls running down it. They are fun to huck if you like flat landings or like to fall off unseen drops (me last year!). This time I knew where they were. We skied a couple of nice lines and then did a small sidestep up to the main run.

We took the first two lifts up and headed back to that same run a couple more times and then we headed down to lunch. It was just after 1:30pm. I had the awesome Katsudon (breaded pork cutlet over rice, with onion and a partially cooked egg on top) and a miso soup. Yum! No one had much motivation to do anymore skiing so we headed back to the hotel around 2:30pm. Then we went into the mall to the Boston pork speciality restaurant where it’s all pork, all of the time and had a really nice meal. The menu was tough to read as it’s all Japanese and without many pictures, but we all ended up with something good (I had a pork steak with vegies and rice). Another great day of eating with some skiing! Ha ha…..

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The top lift with some decent trees up high to the looker's right.

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Plug-ski!

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Great views of the town and the ocean.

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Short but very, very steep and a complex drop in. There was a lot more snow on this face this year and a challenging start. Fun times!

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@Big Salad finding a nice ridge....

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It's those dam walls again! They didn't take me out this year, I was ready for them this year! Ha ha!

- Matt
 

karlo

Out on the slopes
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NJ
Will be in Japan next week! Can't wait. What's amazing is, this time of year, the drumbeat of snow. Looking at the forecast for Teine.

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Just non-stop. So sad I couldn't do Hokkaido. Never been.

Oh, btw, that's for Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, but it goes on for the six days of the forecast. Simply amazing.
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Granby, CO
Day 17: 19th Jan – Sapporo Teine/Travel Day

This was our travel day to Furano and the original plan was to head to Mt. Racey on the way for a half day ski, but it was snowing decently in Otaru when we woke up so I decided we should go to Teine instead. It was on the way to Furano and is a quicker drive than going via Yubari, though not as scenic.

On the drive to Teine (about 45 minutes from Otaru) we saw several cars with at least 8 inches of snow on top of them. The forecast was for about 5cm’s and as always, the forecast was greatly under-reported. We made it to Teine Highlands by about 9:15am and quickly bought our tickets (4 hour passes). We went straight to the high-speed quad. It’s only about a 4 minute ride and the snow looked really good on the way up. It looked pretty deep. There winds were decent and there were some decent drifts around.

We headed to the backcountry access gate for our first run and went out far skier’s left side. In places it was boot-top deep and we got some faceshots. We lapped quickly circled around for another lap. We bumped into the American ski patroller Steve (super nice guy but he wants to chat a lot, which was a bit tough on a powder day and we had to keep moving!). It’s all a bit of a blur after that….. we did at least 7 laps before we headed in for lunch. We’d skied some really good snow in the trees, it was a great sleeper powder day. I think the crew were pretty happy and really enjoyed Teine. It’s a fun, steep mountain and there’s a lot hidden away. I still need to explore it more.

My only somewhat negative thought about Teine is that I wish they would do some more glading (a la Rusutsu) and then they would have something truly special. There’s some great skiing to be had but a lot of bushwhacking. If they cleared out some of the brush they would have something truly unique. They have decent vert and they have the steeps that most of the other resorts don’t have. I can dream…..

We had finished lunch by 1pm and then we hit the road. It was about 2.5 hours to get to Furano. I like the drive as it’s very different to being in Otaru. The guys in the back sawa couple of male deer with massive racks and I saw a fox from a distance. We had dinner at our favorite grill in Furano town and everyone loved the food. The twice cooked noodles with pork cheek, fried egg and fish flakes were so good. Love the food there and the chef is a fun guy too. Then I finally got to catch up on my laundry. That’s a win-win for everyone……

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Looking back up towards the peak. That's some steep terrain up there, the steepest resort skiing in Hokkaido I believe.


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@Big Salad in deep at the top of the old tram building.

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 18: Jan 20th - Furano

It was a beautiful bluebird day with a few inches of new snow. I was keen to show the guys a real off-the beaten path tour of Furano, thinking that we might only be skiing there for 1 day. So the whistlestop tour began. We started at 9am and took the tram up after the traverse across from the hotel. We went straight to the double chair at the top and it looked beautiful. The trees were blanketed in white and we had great views of the Daizetsusan National Park behind us. It was stunning. We definitely had to stop to take a few pics of the views.

We went straight out the gates at the top and over to the Diamond, a popular sidecountry route that gives you nearly 2,500 ft vert. There were plenty of old tracks still poking through the new snow, but the new snow was so light with the very cold temps that we were getting faceshots with only a few new inches. It was a bit of hard work and then a big ski down to the creek to get back out. If the snow was deeper that run would be unreal! On we continued.

Then it was time to hike up to the Premium Zone and we found better snow in the hidden face at the end of one of the ridgelines that I like to ski often. That was probably the best run of the day in terms of the snow. Next we went out the gate near the top of the Kitanomine gondola but surprisingly this was the most tracked run of the day. Last year that was hardly hit at all. I think the new very obvious gates now in this area have made it more obvious and popular. So that was a bit of a bust. Then we hit the double connecting chair and a secret face towards the end of that. That was a better run, I found some nice snow on that run.

After lunch we bumped into Jeremy and his crew. Zach was with them and we all went back to the top of the Kitanomine gondola and went back out the side gate. The trees to the right hadn’t been hit yet so we out some nice lines in there. That was about it for the day and we celebrated by going to a new BBQ place in Furano town that was really nice.

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@Big Salad getting in deep! Thanks to Susan for taking this shot.


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Teletubby antenna sticking out to save the day. @Mattadvproject getting some cheater faceshots...... thanks to Susan for the photo.


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Susan does like to take a good sneaky photo! Thanks for this one, I'm probably cheating again.....


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I do appreciate the many levels of irony in this shot..... stack all the ski gear against the snowboarder who is standing right next to the racks so we can go into the shop....


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Maybe we skied somewhere up in there......


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They like their snow sculptures in Furano.


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Volcanoes in the background. Furano putting on a show on our first day.


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The team for that day; from left to right. Paul, Gary and Susan. Zach was skiing with the other group

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 19: Jan 21st – Kamui Ski Links

The forecast wasn’t looking too good for Furano with big winds and the potential for the lifts to close, so I made the call to head to Kamui Ski Links where windspeeds were forecasted to be about 25 kmph lighter. They had had moderate snowfalls of about 6cm’s, but as we all should know by now, those depths are normally greatly underforecasted……

It’s about an hour and 10 minutes to get t Kamui from Furano. You pass through the town of Ashibetsu with the massive Buddhist statue (10th tallest in the world no less!) next to a small 2 lift ski area. We stopped there on the way back to Furano.

The car park was starting to fill a little (it was a Sunday and does see some traffic from the big city of Asahikawa and gets Western visitors too) as we arrived by 9:30am. There was a pretty big queue at the indoor ticket counter but we had our passes and off we went. We bought 5 hour tickets and headed to the gondola. We went straight to the top and out the gate. There was another group that dropped the same time to our left and we went straight ahead. The snow was pretty deep, about knee deep but was a little wind-affected and not quite blower pow (definitely had some good snow in Kamui before!).

We had a nice run down and then hit the traverse line out. Unfortunately, with the cold snow and somewhat uphill track at the start, it was very slow going for Paul on the snowboard and he had to walk a little bit. Understandably he wasn’t too stoked on this and we had to change plans and find some runs with easier outs for him. We stayed closer to the far chairlift and did some laps in that zone.

Then we skied over to the other side of the mountain to try some runs on the far side. There are 3 double chairs and as we got on the first chair we heard a loudspeaker announcement in Japanese and then saw a big crowd of people turning around and coming in our direction. They must have closed the gondola due to the wind. We took the first 2 chairs and then by the time we got the start of the 3rd chair, we noticed that it too had been closed. Now what would we do?

My thought was that if the far left chair (the one up higher that we had lapping originally) was still open, then if we skinned up, we might get lucky and be able to still ride in there. If people came down from there, they would be stuck down low and not be able to get back up unless they skinned, which seemed unlikely (always carry skins!). So we went for it, straight up the blue run and up to the top. It took about 25 minutes and wasn’t too bad. The hiking helped to warm us up as it was getting really cold. No one followed us up. We decided to head straight to the top of the chair to see if it still was still running and sure enough, it was. There were not many people up there so we set up to do a few laps.

After a couple of laps we were the only ones there and we could get back into the end of sidecountry area which was starting to fill in again with all the new snow and driving wind. The laps were short but it was fun, at least Paul could get in and out easily. We did that for an hour or so and by then, it was close to 2pm, time for us to head down and get some lunch. I had told the boys about the King of Kamui they serve at Kamui and the “King of Kamui Challenge.” Basically the King of Kamui is a massive serving of rice, curry sauce, a breaded pork cutlet, hash-brown and an egg that comes on a big silver platter. It costs 1,500 JPY and not many people can finish it. It comes on its own special lunch tray that is bigger than the regular trays.

The boys were keen to see if they could finish it. It turns out Gary is a massive hustler as he said that he thought it unlikely he could finish it and promptly devoured the whole lot in about 7 minutes. Paul was not too far behind and they both finished it pretty easily. Needless to say none of them needed dinner that night. On the drive home, it was absolutely dumping. It was hard going but this is not the first Hokkaido blizzard I’ve ever had to drive through. We made it home in one piece and I had a night in. Thanks to Jeremy to taking the rest of the guys out to the Doxon brewery for dinner.

Something different other than ski footage......


- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

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Day 20: Jan 22nd – Furano

It was our last full day in Furano, so we were up early. We were on the first tram at 8:30am and then waited in line for the double chair at the top to open at 9am. I was open to suggestion as to where we started and most people were keen to ski laps in the trees around the double chair until we could hike to the Premium Zone at 10am. We did a quick groomer and then did several laps on a steeper, open-treed face to the looker’s right of the chair. That was nice for some quick ones! Paul wasn’t keen to hike yet so he took off to do his own thing. It was just Susan, Gary and myself.

Then close to 10am, we headed over to the Premium Zone. There was an old skin track already in but otherwise there was no one else there. I don’t think anyone fancied putting in a bootpack when it was more than knee deep. We followed the skin track and it was pretty easy going. It was a good track, away from the big cornices at the top. We made it in good time and were the first ones up. The whole zone lay untouched in front of us and the sun was peeking out. It was spectacular.

I wanted us to stay away from the cornices, so we came down a sub-ridge a little ways where we could see our line. I volunteered to take video so I stayed on the ridge to film from up higher. The 7 or 8 turns I had were deep and awesome! Then Susan dropped in first and it looked really good, with the light snow hitting her upper body with every turn. Gary dropped in next and he went a little faster dropping in slightly deeper with his turns. That looked really good! I rejoined the others (got a massive faceshot as I dropped off the ridge, couldn’t see much after that one and had to ski the next turn blind). Then we did a team ski and I filmed everyone on the move from the side (footage to come!). That was one of the runs of the season so far…..

That was so much fun we had to go do it again. We circled back around for another lap, this time taking the bootpack from the Kitanomine side. I find that side a lot more work, it’s longer and steeper but we made good time. The sun had gone in so we didn’t have the same light but this time we headed to the hidden face we skied with the group a few days previously. It had 2 tracks on it but the skier’s right side was untouched and it was nice and deep. I got some more good footage of Susan and Gary and had some fun turns myself.

Then we had some lunch and Susan was done for the day after that. It was just Gary and I. He was keen to give the Premium Zone another run so we hiked it for the third time. We saw that one of the big cornices had collapsed and had slid down into the main bowl. No one was hurt but vilified my idea to stay well away from the earlier. We skied the biggest face and then traversed across into the trees on the side of the ridge. The snow was great but definitely not the same quality of run as our first two. All good though. That was pretty much it for the day. We regrouped at the hotel and then went out to the sushi train in town. Gary set the new eating record with 25 plates! Solid effort, I don’t know if that will get beaten anytime soon. A great way to finish the Furano leg of the trip.





- Matt
 

Jim McDonald

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Tokyo
great stuff, Go Pugski!
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 21: Jan 23rd – Mt. Racey/Travel Day

It was time to leave Furano and head back to Chitose for the end of the Pugski group’s trip. We had 4 people that wanted to go and check out Sapporo and I had 2 (Gary and Paul) that wanted to get 1 last ski in. We drove about 2 hours south east to get to Yubari where they have the small ski area of Mt. Racey. I like Mt. Racey a lot, it’s only small but it’s fun; the snow in the trees is usually untouched and you can find some steep lines. There are not many places that they have roped so you can have a good time there. It doesn’t get as much snow as the Otaru resorts or even the Furano resorts, but given the lack of Westerners going there. If you know where to go, you can normally find good snow.

We arrived there around 9:30am having left Furano around 7:30am. There were hardly any cars in the carpark so I was optimistic we might find some good snow. We took the main gondola up (nice to ride a gondola where fat skis can actually fit in the racks outside!). I was concerned about the runouts for Paul on his snowboard so Gary and I went in to the woods near the gondola and scoped the conditions and track out. Sure enough it was untouched in there. The traverse out was a little tricky though, so we went and scoped another line on the other side of the mountain. That went through pretty easily and on the next run; we came back to the original trees and found a really nice run to the skier’s left of the zone. This time we found a really nice runout for Paul.

We did a quick pit-stop and grabbed a drink outside the ski school office and rental shop. A gentleman came over to us and asked us where we were from and then asked if we could help tag them online in our photos. I explained that I was a tour operator and that I was bringing guests to the resort from overseas. He was surprised and excited by this and said that they had had a lot of new snow and we should go skiing in the trees; that is where we would find the good snow. I told him thankyou and that is where we were already skiing and having fun. It is a nice change to be invited to ski in the trees and not have to worry about doing anything wrong. Yubari has a nice English website and it seems that they are trying hard to appeal to the Western market now as well. They are off to a good start.

We ended up skiing that zone about 5 or 6 times, each time finding untouched snow. We had the area to ourselves, it was pretty special. We only had a 4 hour ticket and time was moving on, so Gary and I wanted to try another line through some different trees and see how that would be for Paul. It went through ok (Paul would have had to have 1 footed it a little) and then we circled around for 1 last lap. We did a final lap skiing a steep open face that came out onto a cat track with really easy access back to the resort. That was a new line for me and one I had been curious about skiing. The face was massively sun affected which was fine, just skiing a new line was the bonus. Then we headed down and had a nice lunch. They have the cheapest food prices In all of the resorts we had been to; for 700 JPY and had a nice curry udon noodle and tempura soup bowl which was very nice. It’s a slight shame the 4 hour lift ticket was so expensive at 4,300 JPY (still way cheaper than any US resort), but all in all, a fun day.

I took the guys on a tour through the old town; it’s a little depressing to see the remains of a once thriving coal mining town reduced from a population of 120,000 down to less than 10,000 people. There are a lot of abandoned buildings and shuttered up shops and even an abandoned minor league baseball field. It’s all very eerie. If you want to read an interesting story on Yubari, then head to https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/aug/15/yubari-japan-city-learns-die-lost-population-detroit. It’s a good read, though I’m intrigued that they don’t mention the ski area and the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival that are recent tourist attractions. There’s a ton of old movie posters painted on the sides of some of the buildings and they are worth a look.

It only takes about an hour to reach Chitose from Yubari and is an easy drive. The rest of the crew were back already from Sapporo and we finished the trip with a group meal at a local Yakitori place (various foods on skewers where you order individual sticks and if you are like me, try and eat as many different ones as you can). For $20, I had a few beers and lots of tasty meat sticks. A great night was capped by a couple of beers back at the ANA Crowne Plaza and a game of darts and pool. It was a memorable trip for all concerned and now the next group starts on the 26th. There is a lot more to come…..

- Matt
 

Jim McDonald

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Nice, Matt. Only been to Racey once, many years ago. Didn't think much of the inbounds, but those vids look interesting.
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Nice, Matt. Only been to Racey once, many years ago. Didn't think much of the inbounds, but those vids look interesting.

Cheers Jim! Yes, if you can get into the trees, there is some good stuff. The biggest surprise was actually being welcomed to go and ski them by an official at the resort, that was a nice surprise. The trees are short, but they are steep. For us it's a nice detour when traveling from Otaru to Furano and vice-versa. They are actively trying to get more Westerners to go there.....
 
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Mattadvproject

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Time to check back in with another blog post...... well the Pugski crew has been and gone, it was a really fun trip and it all went too quickly. I have just finished with my second group and now have a day off in Chitose. My final group arrives on the 7th Feb and then it's back on for another 12 days. My return to the US is not far away now, I'm leaving on the 18th Feb and just have 1 day back home in Denver before it's off to India......

I did find it a little hard to keep up with the blog during the Pugski trip so I decided to take some time off from writing with the second group. I do have plenty of photos and video's to share, so I will add that instead of a ton of writing. If my energy is up, I might try writing again for the 3rd session, but we'll see. Here's some of the highlights from session 2.

For this group, I had 4 people and they were all return guests and friends from previous trips. Gordon is a ski instructor from Telluride and he's done 2 sessions in India with me, 3 in Japan and 1 in Chile. Dave is another skier, but this time from Denver and he's done a trip to India with me and 2 trips to Japan. Jacques is a snowboarder from LA and has done 1 trip to Chile with me and Paul is an ex-patroller from Mt. Rose, Nevada and was on my first trip to Chile. It was a nice small group.

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Jacques had arrived a few days early to Otaru and Paul was coming in late. Gordon and Dave met me in Chitose and I drove them to Otaru on day 1. Paul was taking a cab that night. Unfortunately Gordon's ski bag didn't arrive so he took the day off. Dave and I went skiing up at Tengu. We met this awesome little dude on the tram. Gotta love the 1 piece jacket/hood/goggles combo (and sweet Spiderman gloves!). Just when you think you've seen alot....


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We had a great day skiing in Kokusai the next day with some awesome backcountry laps. There was no new snow in the forecast for the next day, so I put forward the idea of the magical mystery tour. There were a couple of resorts close to Otaru that I hadn't been to before that I was keen to explore. The guys were up for a new challenge so off we went. The first resort was Snow Cruise Onze, about 20 minutes north east on the coast road from Otaru.


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The resort is pretty small with only 2 lifts and 180m vertical. It had some really nice trees at the top to the lookers left of the big lift (quad chair). We skied a few laps in there before the patrol caught up with a few of the guys and (apologetically) asked us to ski in them. Thankfully we only had a 2 hour ticket so we weren't missing out. Dave showing us some nifty moves!


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Paul out the front of the main lodge. Inside the cafeteria they had a steak for only 1,000 JPY (around $9). The food was really good.


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Even though it was a bit overcast, the views of the ocean and the Ishikari Bay were really good.


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Tried to buy one of these crazy toys from the vending machine but sadly, it was not working. I've always wanted a "Palasite Creature" toy......


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About 45 minutes further up the road was Bankei, the closest big ski resort to Sapporo. Unfortunately we did not like Bankei so much. The resort has a weird layout and it very busy. There are a few sections of trees but it is clearly signposted that they do not want you going into any of them.... Boo! Plus there are cat tracks running through most of the best ones that disrupt the flow and don't make for fun skiing. Oh well, can't win them all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.


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We did enjoy the rock music they played from the tours of the chairlifts. We had some AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and some other good bands. If I had to design a t-shirt it would read "Bankei: came for the skiing, stayed for the music!"


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Only a few cm's in the forecast, but Kamui delivered the goods yet again! Dave scoping his line.


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Paul enjoying being in the backcountry.


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The crew, from left to right: Jacques, Dave, Paul, Gordon.


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Jacques and I went to scope a different set of trees in the middle of the resort that I had not been into before. Turns out they were really good and were a nice find. Another half a point scored for Kamui.


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Then we moved north to Furano. The sun was out so we decided to head to the Tokachi mountains and do some touring.


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One of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. On a bluebird day, it is breathtaking.


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Jacques practicing his kickturns on a steep face. He did great for his first time doing technical skinning.


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Unfortunately a storm was brewing and we got shut down about an hour into our hike. The winds increased to gale force and we were nearly blown off our skis. We decided to get out of there but still enjoyed a nice run (albeit a short run) in some fresh wind-blown powder.


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We met NBA legends Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mugsy Bogues out skiing one day...... Amazing who you bump into in Japan.


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The Tokachi sneaky foxes! These two were unreal. When we were leaving, we came around a tight corner and then we saw the male sitting in the middle of the road. I slowed right down, expecting him to move. He did not. I honked my horn, but this time, he got up and started to move towards the wheels. I couldn't see him so I had to pull over into a little layby. As soon as I stopped, another smaller fox (assuming the female and his partner in crime) came running out and accosted us.They were very tame and obviously looking to be fed. We didn't feed them and took some photos and let them be. Amazing to get up so close to these beautiful creatures and amazing to witness their little act!


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Beautiful animal..... in such good condition. Then we headed to a beautiful natural onsen in the forest. A great way to cap off the day.


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Feeding ourselves at the sushi train in Furano.


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Jacques tried valiantly to beat Gary's record of 25 plates of sushi and made it to 22. Great effort!


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- Matt
 

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