Niseko, Hokkaido

So, our first day on snow was Thursday, Feb. 21. We started out at Niseko Annupuri, the eastern most entrance to the group of areas in Niseko. Like many places in Europe, you can go up a lift in one resort and ski down into another. Here we bought a multi-area pass and skied all the areas that day. Taken together, the group of areas is about the size of the resorts we are used in to in the Rocky Mountain U.S.

The Gondola. How do you say "Who's holdin'?" in Japanese?

It had apparently been very sunny and had not snowed in a while. That said, there is a ton of snow here, and it clearly snows a lot. But, notice the available freshies even after days of no new snow.
We met up with Brad, the other "client" on our trip and skied that day. Here is what the areas typically look like. Decent pitch for me, through sparse trees and nice snow. MJ had the best descriptor for the snow this day. It was "cake flour". This is not the norm. The snow is reputed to be light and dry and more like Utah than the N.W.


Note the overcast. This is reported to be the norm. It is funny because you do not get your visual bearings. But, the visibility was not bad, and once you were in the trees, it was great.

MJ getting the good work done in the trees. Sorry about the "not great" camera work, but you get the idea.

A little in the back seat, but we love her anyway . . . .


DR in the house of Nihon