The Lost Dimension in the Search for Pow Freshies in Space and Time

“Where is the powder?” Why is this question so difficult to answer? Is the powder in Hokkaido? Yes, and no. Nagano? Yes and no. Yamagata, Aomori, Niigata, Fukushima, Gunma, or even Hyogo? Yes and no. It is under the fence on the far right? On the far left? Under the Gondola? Through those trees? On the closed run? Yes, and no.

“Where is the powder?” We’ve spent so many months looking for the answer that we don’t even bother to consider the question anymore and therefore we fail to realize that the question is seriously flawed. Powder, the rarest, most precious, and most unstable of God’s creations - snow in it’s greenest, goldest, and bluest moment - doesn’t exist as much in space as it does in time. The question we should ask is not “Where is the Powder?” but “When is the powder?”

“When is the powder?” This question is much simpler to answer! It is answered by our sleeping patterns, our waking hours, and the movement of the sun over the horizons but to make a geophysical story short, powder is in the morning. It is in the morning after it has fallen cold all night and slowly built up, a loosely packed present for the early riser. On those mornings it doesn’t matter ‘where’ you look because the powder is everywhere, the morning is the important thing, the ‘when’ in the equation.
  

  
Some resorts in North America have made this discovery and are even selling the luxury of early morning skiing. Whistler’s “Fresh Tracks” is a perfect example that allows a limited number of guests the opportunity to buy premium lift tickets so they can board before anyone else gets there.

Early morning snowboarding is not a new thing in Japan, resorts such as Sun Alpina, Tenjindaira, Kandatsu, and Iwappara have always offered ‘dawner’ tickets for a relatively low price to anyone who would care to have them. Originally these tickets were created to satisfy the seemingly insatiable appetite for skiing in Japan during the late 80’s but now these lesser-known tickets beckon only to those who hunger desperately for powder and have already figured out when to get it. However, allowing an unlimited number of boarders on the hill hardly creates a powder haven. For these early birds there is something new in Japan, the fattest juiciest worm ever.
  

  
Arai Resort calls their new program the Early Bird. Arai offers up the their entire mountain at 7:00 AM for the first 15-18 people who are smart enough to grab it. They only allow you to go up with a guide and they only allow three boarders to one guide. The reason for this is that most of the courses have not yet been marked by the ski patrol that early in the morning so the only the guide can tell you where to go so you do not end up in a crevice or an avalanche. The real beauty of it is that they only allow about 5 groups to go up so, even on a full day the mountain is entirely yours.

At first the price may seem a bit steep, over 19,000 yen for a group of three, but once you realize what you are actually paying for the price doesn’t seem quite so high. What you are paying for is the whole mountain. Imagine if you and a couple of your friends could pay 20,000 yen and the resort would just hand over the whole thing to you. You might manage to come up with the Sosekis, right? All the lifts, the gondola, the runs, the ski patrol are yours for 90 minutes, have fun! It is difficult to imagine so, let me tell you about my experience on Arai’s Early Bird.

It is an eerie feeling being the first person to get off the gondola in the morning. Everything is familiar, the mountains, the runs, the trees, but it is deadly silent and you realize right away the odd lack of people, as if the mountain has been abandoned. The eeriness leaves you after you put your first foot out in the fresh snow and realize that you are the first person to step onto the mountain and that all the snow that fell overnight is yours. You know the feeling of excitement when you go through the trees far enough to come across an untouched stretch of powder? Imagine the feeling of discovering not just an untouched stretch but also an untouched mountain! Then imagine the ecstatic realization that no one will come and poach it, no ski patrol will come and bust you, no avalanche or unexpected crevice is going to swallow you, and no hike-out awaits the end of your run. That feeling is about as close to freedom as any snowboarder can get.
  

  
I went on a Saturday but there were still only five people, including two guides, on the entire mountain. I mainly looked forward to having the guide show me all of Arai’s hot spots and powder havens but once I got to the top of the mountain I realized that looking for powder off the course was a waste of my time because there was fresh snow everywhere! Ishiyama-san, my guide was very helpful. When I told him where I wanted to go he would happily take me there after radioing ahead to the ski patrol to see if they had checked it for avalanche danger. Once we got the go-ahead from the ski patrol we were free to board at will with absolutely no concern for hidden dangers, it was blissful. As we rode up our own private lift Ishiyama-san - an experienced instructor with over 10 years of boarding under his belt - was very happy to give me tips on improving my stance and style.

The guided instruction and the feeling of freedom were wonderful but the true prize was in the boarding itself. This was a kind of snowboarding I had never before experienced. I love backcountry snowboarding but even the freshest deepest backcountry snow can’t hide the rocks, logs, and rivers that lie beneath it. Of course, these things all add to the excitement and the raw experience that is backcountry but there is still something to be said for a groomed course. I’m not talking about a regular course as we know it - meaning a course that has been cut up and become lumpy and icy during the course of the day - I am talking about a freshly groomed course, as if the groomers finished their job, called you up and said, “OK, we’re ready for you now.” Your legs are braced for bumps and scrapes and patches of inconsistency but there are none. You can go as fast as you like and the board does not jostle or bounce, it just guides along. Grooming is done at night, scraping away all of the impurities of the day before and leaving a wonderful smooth glass surface. When the snow continues to fall during the nighttime, what you get is a thick layer of fresh powder over that perfectly flat surface, a virgin white canvas upon which you can create some of your most perfect mountain memories. The board reacted immediately to my thoughts and I could actually feel the length of the side cut pushing against the weight of the snow. There were no disruptions or bumps on the whole mountain, entire runs took less than one minute to complete, and I didn’t even use my muscles, it was like snowboarding in a perfect vacuum!

Snowboarders will never tire of their noble search for powder. However, before you go over every inch of terrain, remember that powder exists in time as much as it does in space, and if you want to have the time of your life, you have to wake up early. Call up your favorite resort to see if they have a dawner ticket. If they do not, and you feel that you are beginning to tire in your righteous hunt and that maybe you could use a little pampering, check the forecast and reserve one of the few spots on Arai’s Early Bird, where the worm is waiting for you!