chumpomatic
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2021
After spending four days in Tokyo getting over jetlag, eating, and doing generally touristy things, we arrived in Grand Hirafu in the evening on Friday, January 6. It’s about a 90 minute flight from Tokyo to CTS (Sapporo) and then a two and a half hour drive to Hirafu. We were ecstatic to be back after three years of pandemic prohibition. It had been snowing 3-6 inches just about every day for weeks so there was plenty of snow and Saturday was to be the first sunny day in a month.
Not the early start I hoped for on Saturday but passes purchased and on the mountain by 9:30. It was a gorgeous day and I spent it skiing with my favorite person, Mrs. Chumpomatic.
Mt. Yotei from the bottom of the King quad.
Looking up from the top of King Hooded Quad #3
Pizza Box!
Nisseko United consists of four interconnected resorts, all on different aspects of the same mountain: Annapuri (the name of the mountain and one of the four resorts), Niseko Village, Grand Hirafu (which hosts the actual main village), and Hanazono. The Annapuri resort is really for beginner skiing so we don’t head over there much. We spent that first Saturday reacquainting ourselves with Hirafu and Hanazono. We started by taking the Ace Quad lift up and out of town then skied over to the King Hooded Quad Lift. That picture of Mt. Yotei is from the bottom of the King lift. We had intended to go up the King quad but the snow looked so good and the view was so spectacular that we skied down to the Hirafu Gondola. Runs there are rated as Green, Red, or Black (with a few gates marked double black). We took it easy most of that first day. I had already got 18 days in at WF but it was Mrs. Chumpo’s first day of the season. After taking the Gondola back up we did head up the King Hooded Quad. The picture of the single chair, affectionately called a “pizza box”, is from the top of the King quad. There’s two of those singles at Niseko and they really are just a flat chair the size of a pizza box and a pole to hold on to. We skied from there down to Hanazono and did a few laps off of Hanazono #1 skiing through some mellow low angle trees between Stairway to Heaven and Legend of Shinya. After that it was back over to the Hirafu Gondola so I could do a couple of laps on Konayuki and Miharashi before lunch. We had lunch at our favorite spot, I’ll throw in a couple of pics below. After lunch we skied the area under Ace Quad Lift #2. There’s a run there called Super that gets me my bump fix and there’s even a good side country gate right there for some tree skiing. By three o’clock we were pretty done so we skied down into Grand Hirafu and walked back to the hotel. Dinner was Yakatori at Bang Bang, one of my favorites.
Kumo at Skye (awesome for lunch!)
Yakitori at Bang Bang for dinner
After that first day I didn’t actually keep a detailed log, but here’s a summary and some more pics of the next six. Days 2-4 it snowed every night and day, not a lot, just about 2-6 inches every 24 hours.
Day 2 we headed over to Niseko Village and spent the morning there. In the afternoon we went over to Hanazono and skied Strawberry Fields all afternoon. That was some fun and fairly mellow Japanese tree skiing in fresh snow. Don’t know what else to say to make it sound any better. Just pure fun.
The Niseko Gondola
Hanazono from above
Days 3 and 4 I took the mornings to ski on my own and met my better half for lunch. This works well as I’m usually dead tired and ready for a beer, a meal, and a mellow afternoon of groomers or tame trees. When I was by myself, I mostly skied side country between Hirafu and Hanzono. There is good “backcountry” skiing there through gates G3, G4, and G5 but on this trip I only skied through G5. This is because I’m lazy and didn’t want to hike but also because I was skiing solo and don’t know the area all that well. There’s another gate between Niseko and Hirafu, G11, that I wanted to do and felt fine doing it solo because I could stay line-of-sight to the Niseko Gondola, but it warmed up and stopped snowing, I missed my window.
Side country between Hirafu and Hanazono
Days 5 and 6 it was warm and dry so mostly ripping groomers, drinking beer and sake, and the usual skiing silliness.
Shabu Shabu for dinner!
Day 7 we went to Rusutsu which is about 40 minutes away. I had been meaning to try it. It’s not as developed and is known for excellent tree skiing and longer runs. Since it hadn’t snowed much the past few days, the tree skiing wasn’t happening but it was still a good recon mission. I’ll be back. Here are some pictures from that day.
Yotei and West Mt. from Rusutsu
Rusutsu from West Mt.
Rusutsu vs Niseko: Rusutsu is much lower key than Niseko, no scene, far fewer people, and really good skiing. Also, I didn’t mention this before but the lift system at Niseko United leaves a lot to be desired. It’s just kind of thrown together in what seems to me a very haphazard way. Rusutsu has fewer lifts but they make a lot more sense. Anyway, that all sounds nice about Rusutsu but I don’t think I would want to stay there for long. There’s really not much at the base and I do enjoy being in a killer village like Grand Hirafu. Maybe a night or two in Rusutsu or maybe just day trips, it’s only 40 minutes. I also want to check out Kiroro next time. The local weather there gives it a ridiculous amount of snow. Also, not much of a village but probably good for a day or two.
Last ride at Rusutsu
Final thoughts:
If you have the resources, I would make this trip. There are hotels to suit any budget and lift tickets are less than $60 a day. The big expense is the airfare and the time it takes to get there and get over the jetlag. We went a little early in the season which couldn’t be helped because of my work schedule. Ideally, I would go in late January or in February but be sure to avoid the time around Chinese New Year, that’s when Singapore and the Chinese have their holidays and the place is packed. If you like tree skiing, it’s definitely for you. It has its own feel, not like anywhere else I’ve been. It's probably worth going for the skiing alone but for me it’s really the whole deal, the food, the culture, the feeling like you’re skiing on a different planet, that makes it so great. I’m hoping to go again next year.
Not the early start I hoped for on Saturday but passes purchased and on the mountain by 9:30. It was a gorgeous day and I spent it skiing with my favorite person, Mrs. Chumpomatic.
Mt. Yotei from the bottom of the King quad.
Looking up from the top of King Hooded Quad #3
Pizza Box!
Nisseko United consists of four interconnected resorts, all on different aspects of the same mountain: Annapuri (the name of the mountain and one of the four resorts), Niseko Village, Grand Hirafu (which hosts the actual main village), and Hanazono. The Annapuri resort is really for beginner skiing so we don’t head over there much. We spent that first Saturday reacquainting ourselves with Hirafu and Hanazono. We started by taking the Ace Quad lift up and out of town then skied over to the King Hooded Quad Lift. That picture of Mt. Yotei is from the bottom of the King lift. We had intended to go up the King quad but the snow looked so good and the view was so spectacular that we skied down to the Hirafu Gondola. Runs there are rated as Green, Red, or Black (with a few gates marked double black). We took it easy most of that first day. I had already got 18 days in at WF but it was Mrs. Chumpo’s first day of the season. After taking the Gondola back up we did head up the King Hooded Quad. The picture of the single chair, affectionately called a “pizza box”, is from the top of the King quad. There’s two of those singles at Niseko and they really are just a flat chair the size of a pizza box and a pole to hold on to. We skied from there down to Hanazono and did a few laps off of Hanazono #1 skiing through some mellow low angle trees between Stairway to Heaven and Legend of Shinya. After that it was back over to the Hirafu Gondola so I could do a couple of laps on Konayuki and Miharashi before lunch. We had lunch at our favorite spot, I’ll throw in a couple of pics below. After lunch we skied the area under Ace Quad Lift #2. There’s a run there called Super that gets me my bump fix and there’s even a good side country gate right there for some tree skiing. By three o’clock we were pretty done so we skied down into Grand Hirafu and walked back to the hotel. Dinner was Yakatori at Bang Bang, one of my favorites.
Kumo at Skye (awesome for lunch!)
Yakitori at Bang Bang for dinner
After that first day I didn’t actually keep a detailed log, but here’s a summary and some more pics of the next six. Days 2-4 it snowed every night and day, not a lot, just about 2-6 inches every 24 hours.
Day 2 we headed over to Niseko Village and spent the morning there. In the afternoon we went over to Hanazono and skied Strawberry Fields all afternoon. That was some fun and fairly mellow Japanese tree skiing in fresh snow. Don’t know what else to say to make it sound any better. Just pure fun.
The Niseko Gondola
Hanazono from above
Days 3 and 4 I took the mornings to ski on my own and met my better half for lunch. This works well as I’m usually dead tired and ready for a beer, a meal, and a mellow afternoon of groomers or tame trees. When I was by myself, I mostly skied side country between Hirafu and Hanzono. There is good “backcountry” skiing there through gates G3, G4, and G5 but on this trip I only skied through G5. This is because I’m lazy and didn’t want to hike but also because I was skiing solo and don’t know the area all that well. There’s another gate between Niseko and Hirafu, G11, that I wanted to do and felt fine doing it solo because I could stay line-of-sight to the Niseko Gondola, but it warmed up and stopped snowing, I missed my window.
Side country between Hirafu and Hanazono
Days 5 and 6 it was warm and dry so mostly ripping groomers, drinking beer and sake, and the usual skiing silliness.
Shabu Shabu for dinner!
Day 7 we went to Rusutsu which is about 40 minutes away. I had been meaning to try it. It’s not as developed and is known for excellent tree skiing and longer runs. Since it hadn’t snowed much the past few days, the tree skiing wasn’t happening but it was still a good recon mission. I’ll be back. Here are some pictures from that day.
Yotei and West Mt. from Rusutsu
Rusutsu from West Mt.
Rusutsu vs Niseko: Rusutsu is much lower key than Niseko, no scene, far fewer people, and really good skiing. Also, I didn’t mention this before but the lift system at Niseko United leaves a lot to be desired. It’s just kind of thrown together in what seems to me a very haphazard way. Rusutsu has fewer lifts but they make a lot more sense. Anyway, that all sounds nice about Rusutsu but I don’t think I would want to stay there for long. There’s really not much at the base and I do enjoy being in a killer village like Grand Hirafu. Maybe a night or two in Rusutsu or maybe just day trips, it’s only 40 minutes. I also want to check out Kiroro next time. The local weather there gives it a ridiculous amount of snow. Also, not much of a village but probably good for a day or two.
Last ride at Rusutsu
Final thoughts:
If you have the resources, I would make this trip. There are hotels to suit any budget and lift tickets are less than $60 a day. The big expense is the airfare and the time it takes to get there and get over the jetlag. We went a little early in the season which couldn’t be helped because of my work schedule. Ideally, I would go in late January or in February but be sure to avoid the time around Chinese New Year, that’s when Singapore and the Chinese have their holidays and the place is packed. If you like tree skiing, it’s definitely for you. It has its own feel, not like anywhere else I’ve been. It's probably worth going for the skiing alone but for me it’s really the whole deal, the food, the culture, the feeling like you’re skiing on a different planet, that makes it so great. I’m hoping to go again next year.
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