The Japan Sessions, So Far by Nathan DISCUSS THIS FEATURE HERE Please note: This feature was written in late February, 2004

First off I would like to thank all of you who have helped to make my first winter here in the mountains of the rising sun, such a good one. Thanks for your help, and for all the great times and great lines, there will be many more to come.

So, wow, it’s been a pretty wild ride so far, and it’s only just creeping up on March with the spring touring season just around the corner. Things have definitely improved since I arrived in this kickass little valley back in mid-December, during the early season drought. Prior to that, I spent a month - bashing rocks and sassa - in Hokkaido, praying to the snow gods up on Mt. Yotei for the goods to return. My last memories of the northern island were the bears on Yotei that should have been hibernating, and the retirement of my trusty old K2’s that donated way too much edge and base to my early season greed hopping the drainage ditches, Lake Louise-style, in Niseko.　　

But now I’m in Hakuba, the Diamirs have been moved onto a nice pair of fat twin tips, and after a blurry couple of months that saw our base rise from under 1m to over 3m, those days of praying seem like a long way away. During my time in this valley, it seems nothing about the mountain weather here behaves in moderation. When it snows, it dumps. And when it clears up, the intense sun crusts up the light and dry on the lower S. Facing slopes. Then when you thought winter was over again, another big system rolled in from Siberia, sucking down cold arctic air and packing strong NW winds to load up those sun crusts under another 70cm of fresh.

Yes, for the majority of the season, it was not a good time to play in the high alpine. Huge natural avalanche cycles occurred after storms, many of which were class 4 in magnitude, and giant fractures in the alpine combined to show us the power these mountains could unleash. At my house, it seemed like every sunny day would require me to fix up the boards used to protect my windows that had been ripped off by the last warm spell, only to be blocked up by another intense storm and warming trend where they would get ripped off again.

Early February brought a nice solid snow pack, allowing for some sweet lines to be had in the Alpine and the sweet N. Faces of Happo, Hakuba 47 and Tsugaike, in pick your line, blue bird conditions. Conditions were so tempting that even one of the high ranking examiners on the second ever Japan-based, Canadian Avalanche Association Level 1 course was busted by the patrol on the south faces of Tsugaike. Then as we were lulled into the routine of our powder paradise, Mother Nature started to show her devious side. Clear skies slowly built up surface hoar layers that glistened on silky smooth pow lines, while moderate bifurcating winds slowly built up multi directional cornices. Dave and I witnessed this devious side, mid-February, on our advanced back country trip down the beautiful dry N. facing lines on Otomi Yama. Wind loading on a pocket of surface hoar created a slab crown, 1m deep, on a convex roll 300m below the obvious start zone on this popular off-piste area. The power of that class 4 powder cloud created a brand new slide path, snapping 100 year old trees with debris running to the river valley bottom. Just one of those signs Mother Nature gives you that similar potential waits in other beautiful, open chutes that riddle that area. Route finding and staying to ridges, despite the lure of dryer, deeper turns in the gullies below, was the name of the game we played that day. Thankfully, the south facing slopes across the valley on Happo Yama had completely released, making our trip out of the valley significantly safer than the day before, when those class 4 chutes created the debris we had to stumble over. Though the skies during our day were clear, and the snow was light and dry, it was a combination of experience, mountain sense and timing that prevented our good day from being just another statistic.

At the time of writing a monsoon rain, on a pineapple express right out of memories of doing field work in the W. Ghats of India, ended all that fun with rain falling right to the peaks. A small storm followed, first freezing that giant rain layer and then laying down 20cm of light dry snow on top. Now it’s forecast to get sunny (yet cool) to set things up for a heavy snow fall on Thursday. Possibly another 70cm? Yes..... it definitely has been a wild ride this season. No longer are there safe runs to be had, as even the most sheltered north facing trees have been affected. I know I’ve seen a lot of beautiful yet dangerous snow crystals this year getting loaded and letting loose. Now we have a giant rain crust to deal with this spring as another one of the numerous, dynamic mountain variables we as back-country enthusiasts will have to take into account when venturing off slopes.

Now that March is approaching and the days are getting warmer, the urge to ski the last of the light and dry is hitting us harder than ever before. The spring sun will be pushing us higher out into the dryer snow of the more unfamiliar territory and big terrain in the alpine. I know I’ve fallen in love with the range that is my current home. Peaks here are as large as my former home between the Selkirks and Purcells of British Columbia, yet chizz led like my memories of the Gariwhal Himalayas, with the odd volcanic cone, and familiar sugi forests just to let you know where you are. Every beautiful mountain glow in the morning has me gazing and dreaming of the season capping big lines to come. I’m sure all of us are thinking of the big ones now. Those in Hokkaido, have been staring at the Niseko Range, Mt. Yotei and venturing ever further into the Asahi Dake region. Here in Hakuba, we’re dreaming of the season capping big ones, the 5000 vertical footers, and pick your 45+ degree chutes and giant cirque bowls off of Shira Dake, Yari-ga-Dake, Karamatsu Dake, and last but not least the all-mysterious Shiruma Dake. Then there are the life factors like jobs and time that will dictate when we can hit that snow. Last but not least, the mountains will tell us when we will be allowed up there in the first place. Those of us with the right combination of time, avalanche forecasting abilities, mountain sense and - most importantly - experience may get lucky enough to make those dreams come true.

So, once again it’s time to sharpen our stability evaluation skills.  Though spring is approaching, that dense snow pack is still a ways away and there is a lot of snow waiting for the right trigger to come down the mountain. 

Hope to see you out there...

Nathan