An Interview with "Toque" (Matt Lucas) DISCUSS THIS FEATURE HERE

Any regular reader of the Snow Japan Forums will know about Toque.  One of the most prolific posters on the Forums, Toque is based in Gifu and since arriving in Japan has shared many of his amazing adventures on the snow with other readers.  We thought we'd talk with him and find out a bit more.  Once you have read this, we highly recommend you check out some of his Photos and Journals....

Please tell us a bit about yourself
I was born July 1979 in the beautiful town of Chilliwack, British Columbia. That’s in Canada if you didn’t know. My father introduced me to the mountains at an early age with backpacking and ski trips a regular occurrence. I skied and hiked fairly often right from the age of six. Chilliwack is about 100km east of Vancouver right up against some big mountains - to the south, Chilliwack has the North Cascades and   to the north, the Coast Mountains. It’s a great location for somebody that enjoys outdoor life. After high school it was off to University where I studied Geography at a small local school. They only offered an arts degree in my discipline but I was able to study the physical aspects which keep me entertained. I often spent my time in the Geography lab looking over the topographic maps planning trips for the future.... I love topo maps.

How did you end up in Japan?
I’m employed as a JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program) and when I first decided to come to Japan it was only for a year. The main reason was actually to save some money and pay off a bit of the monstrous student loans that I had accumulated over 4 years of University.

Like most people, I didn’t realize the potential of skiing in Japan until I got here so when faced with a choice on where to live I found an internet site that said that Gifu was surrounded by 3000 metre peaks.  That was my first choice. Nagano was my second, only because I remember the Olympics, and Hokkaido was third.

I feel like I am one of the luckiest JETs in all of Japan because I was placed right in Hida Takayama in Gifu-ken. Takayama is one of the main gateways to the Japanese North Alps.  The North Alps of Japan remind me a lot of the mountains that I grew up in. They are found in central Japan and are bordered by Toyama and Gifu prefectures to the west and by Niigata and Nagano prefectures to the east. The mountains are steep, rugged and receive an amazing amount of snowfall.

The mountains here are huge and I have access to some amazing backcountry skiing and climbing. There are also a few pretty good ski resorts for some easy lift serviced trees.  I really don’t think I’d be happier anywhere else in Japan.

Even though I hold a full time job I get out on the snow about 50 times a year. Once the skiing ends in August though it doesn’t mean that I have to sit in my apartment or get loaded every weekend. I still enjoy getting my hiking boots out and spend my time trying to find a place in the North Alps where I can be alone - pretty difficult in this over populated country!

Tell us about your skiing before you came to Japan.
I’ve been skiing every year since I was six - thanks Dad for introducing me to this great sport!

I’ve always been interested in combining my resort skiing with my other love the mountains. Buying backcountry gear was always a problem though because I didn’t have very much money so I joined a local Search and Rescue group when I was 19 and was able to borrow safety gear from there, but I only ever went out backcountry skiing a few times. My friends at the time were mostly mountaineers and rock climbers so it was difficult convincing them about the joys of the descent.

My skiing in Canada has always been limited to weekends and smallish resorts. I learned to ski at Hemlock Valley and in my teenage years started skiing Manning Park. Both of them were small resorts with only 20-25 runs, 2 chairs and 300-400 meters vertical. But small town skiing in BC can be good. No crowds like the larger resorts and a locals only feel.

The season before I came to Japan I got a really cheap Whistler/Blackcomb season pass and was able to get out there most weekends. I was skiing with some semi-pro skiers that skied the mountain like it was flat. It was lots of fun and they always knew where to find the best snow.

Where do you spend most of your time skiing in Japan? Resorts or BC?
It really depends what you call BC. If the trees around the resort are included in the BC then 99% of my skiing is BC. If only earning your turns is BC then maybe 50-60% of my skiing is in the BC.  (Earning your turns is essentially earning your turns. Maybe you hike up with skis on your back or if you use touring bindings and skins. You hike up and then ski down).

My first year (2003/2004) in Japan was mostly skiing at the local resorts around my city. I usually spent most of my time at Hida Nagareha or Hirayu Onsen resorts. Hida Nagareha is one of my favorite resorts in Japan. The trees are amazing and it gets a huge amount of snow. This is the resort where on many occasions I had to run from the patrol for poaching trees. I had a great time but I still didn’t know very much about the backcountry skiing possibilities in Japan. At the time I was still exploring the North Alps on foot. I only went on 3 real backcountry ski trips that season.

In my second year in Japan (2004/2005) I went shopping many times and spent a lot of money on backcountry gear. I also started hanging out with friends I made on the Snow Japan Forums. The winter months were mostly spent skiing trees in Nagano, however with the new equipment I extended the ski season into mid-August on summer snowfields I had found while hiking through the North Alps the year before. I skied a few steep runs but nothing really fun and interesting until June when I knocked off what I call the "S-Couloir" in the Tateyama area and the "Middle finger couloir" in the Karasawa Valley near Kamikochi. They were both really fun runs and sparked an interest in steep and narrow couloirs that I now can’t get enough of.

The 2005/2006 season has really been a breakthrough for me. I’ve got the gear, the partners and knowledge of these mountains to knock off the more serious lines that I’ve been staring at for the last few years. Still a lot of them remain untouched though - I still have a lot to learn to get into the really fun lines.

I’d say most of my skiing in the 2005/2006 season has been earning my turns. It helped that I broke my foot in early January and couldn’t get into my downhill boots.

What's your opinion of Japanese ski resorts in general?
Japanese ski resorts compared to resorts I’ve skied in Canada are boring at best. The cut runs for me are unimaginative and unchallenging. It’s not that I’m an expert mogul skier or am the best in the park.... I’m not at all. Moguls and park skiing just don’t interest me at all - it’s the trees and big mountains that have kept me in Japan. Almost all resorts have tree skiing though and it takes a little more to keep me interested. I’ve been skiing for a long time at some pretty big mountains so I need a little extra to stay entertained. I’ve found a few good resorts with enough to make me happy but I’ve been sworn to secrecy on their locations.

Overview of your skiing “career” in Japan!
I’ve skied a lot of powder. Much more than I’d ever ski back home in Canada. I’ve also jumped into big mountain lines and steep couloirs. I really like the steep skiing and love skiing couloirs and chutes.

Tell us about the gear you use.

Skis:
I have two pairs of skis ready to go at all times - touring and Resort.
180 bigstix 10.6 - my resort ski. It’s a big ski for deep powder.
190 volkl explosive - my winter backcountry ski. They were mounted with Free Ride touring bindings but I’ve since moved those bindings to my lighter setup. The Explosive is for deep backcountry powder and spring mush.
185 K2 Shuksans - my late spring and into summer ski mounted with Free Ride touring bindings. Light and burly. Bounces off rocks with nary a scratch.

The future for me is lightweight though. I don’t jump off cliffs when I earn turns so having a beefy touring binding is overkill. I think the Dynafit binding system is the way and in reality they are almost as burly as the setup I have now.

Boots:
Two pairs of boots - downhill and backcountry. My backcountry boots are Red Scarpa Denalis. They’re great. I love to climb in them and have put in so many kilometers with them on my feet. They’ve helped me get to some interesting places. I recommend anybody serious about backcountry skiing get a ski-mountaineering boot. They open so many doors.

Other:
I almost always ski with my beacon, probe and shovel and a few other safety things. When I go further than the trees I usually take my ice axe. If the conditions call for it I might also bring my crampons. You never know right. And I’d hate to have to turn around because a ridge was too icy to walk up without a piece of aid gear.

Japanese snow - good, great, the best?
It snows an awful lot here and I’ve never skied this much consistent powder. The best snow that I ever skied in Japan was at Hirayu Onsen in Hida Gifu. That was during the 2003/2004 season. It was so dry and deep. Every turn it would blow over my head. But it takes more than a lot of deep, dry powder to get me excited.

Anywhere you haven’t been in Japan that you really want to?
I’m really happy with the areas that I’ve skied. I’d like to spend at bit more time in the North Alps but other than that there isn’t much that I want to see. I’ve stood on the 10 highest mountains in Japan. It would be nice to ski off them, but that might take a few more years. I bet in a very big snow year that 3180 meter Yari in the North Alps holds a really cool line off it’s summit. I’d love to ski off the summit of Yari because from where I work in Takayama I can see it’s pointed summit.

Tell us about some of your best adventures on the snow in Japan?
My best adventures in Japan have so far been in the 2005/2006 season. They were trips where I was able see an improvement in my skiing and or climbing ability.

My two week vacation in Hakuba was over spring vacation for the high schools. I skied some really cool backcountry lines off of the big mountains behind the ski resorts. The weekdays were mostly spent touring in the mountains behind Tsugaike Ski Resort by myself. I love getting out on my own although in the Japanese mountains that can be a little difficult. With the weekend and good weather I skied some big lines with friends. The trip ended with a big avalanche that you can read about below. Overall the trip was a great learning experience and I knocked off some runs that I’ve thinking about for a long time.

My other favorite Japanese ski adventure was over Golden Week 2006 (early May). I hiked into the Karasawa Valley near Kamikochi. I went with my best and most reliable friends. We carried everything for 5 days on our backs and that alone was a great experience for everybody. While in the valley we skied some very fun lines that I have wanted for well over a year. The best part of the trip for me other than the company was skiing off the summit of Japan’s 3^rd highest peak Oku Hotaka.

Any scary episodes?
Almost too many to mention!  But the scariest by far was a large avalanche that another skier and I triggered just meters from a resort boundary in Hakuba. Luckily nobody was hurt and we learned something from it. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that the terrain just beyond the rope is beyond the rope for a reason. I still think we should be skiing it but just have to remember that once you go under that rope you’re on your own. Even though you have not earned those turns in way you are skiing backcountry terrain and it should be respected.

Meet many cool Japanese skiers?
I think I saw Aiko Uemura in ShinHotaka (onsen town near Takayama) over Golden Week. Other than that I meet some interesting people on my trips. The community that is regularly out in the big mountains is so small and Japan isn’t a very big place. It’s not unusual to meet somebody on the very same mountain a year later and this has happened to me quite a few times.

How about the Snow Japan community that has built up?
I’ve met so many interesting people on the forums. Many of them will be good friends for a long time and a couple of them I’d trust with my life. Some very experienced people on the forum and many great stories to hear. There is a definite community feel and it’s just getting bigger and better.

How do you see the Japanese skiing scene moving forward in the next 5 / 10 years?
The scene has changed so much in the three years I’ve been here. Japanese people are out there skiing powder in the trees. Usually you might have seen tracks on a cloudy day but now they aren’t even hiding it - it is getting harder to keep the promised powder a secret.  It’s going to get ugly though - I think there are going to more deaths from avalanches. The 2005/2006 season saw a lot avalanche-related deaths. Most of them were in the big mountains away from the ski resorts though. I think in the next few years we will see an increase in avalanche-related deaths very close to the resort boundaries. People are ducking ropes expecting controlled terrain and that’s not at all what it is. I think Japan has to start educating people on the risks of avalanches, not try to scare them away though but instead educate.

We know you’re going back to Canada soon, but would you hope to come back to Japan again to ski in the future?
Never say never. I’d like to come back here when I’ve got more ski-mountaineering experience to ski more of the difficult lines that I can’t ski right now. Maybe spend a spring based in Hakuba. It probably won’t be in the near future though.

I’m sad to leave Japan and all the friends that I’ve met over here but I’m very excited to move onto the next part of my life.

What’s next on the list of things to do?
One thing I’ve learned over my 3 years in Japan is that I’m not much of a traveler. I love Japan but it’s much more a love of mountains than the culture. This will be the same if I traveled anywhere in the world I think - a country without big mountains is a country I’ll probably not go.

There are so many mountains in Canada that you could spend a month touring around and never meet a single person. I’d like to ski off a few of the big mountains in Canada but other than that I’ll probably be in the mountains trying my hardest to be the first in the group to the summit.

Snow Japan would like to thank Toque for his time in answering these questions - and also for all the time he spends using our site posting some fantastic content ---messages on the forums, photos and journals!  You can check out the details of some of his adventures from the following links:

Snow Japan wishes Toque all the very best for the future.