Another White Christmas 28th December 2001 Santa forgot to drop off our powder present! It’s hard pack out there… Can’t really complain, December in Niseko has been fantastic.

Most mornings have brought bottomless powder, and with the base already growing towards three metres at the top, we are in for another solid season.

Season 2002, nevertheless, has not been all smooth sailing. Some careless landscaping work done over summer almost crippled Niseko-Hirafu. Intentions were good - the resort for the first time decided to do some proper pre-season preparation, removing shrub debris and old tree stumps. This preparation work is standard practice in most resorts - it enables the resort to open with a minimal snow base. Niseko-Hirafu up to now has always relied on copious amounts of snow to hide what’s buried below. Season 2002 was to be a new start – better service, better prepared ski slopes. Sadly, however, this newly found zest backfired big time: a summer grading machine damaged the main electricity cable that powers the whole Hanazono side.

Damaging a cable in itself wouldn’t have been a real problem. The nightmare began because it was not until mid December that the electricity failed. In Hokkaido the ground freezes down to a depth of around 50cm, causing the soil to move. It appears to have either been this ground freezing condition, or perhaps the weight of snow settling above that finally severed the connection of the damaged cable. The electrical company responsible for Hanazono’s power were faced with a daunting task – in stormy, minus 10 deg C temperatures, trying to track down a broken connection in 10 kilometres of cable that’s buried 120cm underground, under metres of snow and ice…

In desperate times, ski resort management are very good at putting on a smile and saying everything is under control. The seriousness of the problem was played down: "It’s only a small electrical problem. Hanazono will be up and operating again in a day or so." The stories coming from Niseko-Hirafu lifties, however, were totally different. Climbing onto the Hirafu gondola on the third day of the Hanazono stoppage, gondola operator Toshi turns to me with a worried face and says, "You know Hanazono isn’t going to open again this season. They can’t find the cable breakage."

It was a solemn journey up the gondola that day. Images of fast, bottomless peak powder runs that connect you to Hanazono 1 or 3 lifts started to fade… What about Strawberries…? What about Roy’s Trees…? Am I really going to have to hike for my powder this season…?

However, a couple of hours later the same Toshi, this time with a beaming face, reported that the problem had been found. Thankfully the break was close to the bottom of Hana 1. Hanazono will move in a day or so! Thank you Santa – an early but very special Christmas present!

Season 2002 was to bring another new concept to Niseko-Hirafu. At last there was an attempt to acknowledge backcountry skiing. The plan was to implement a gate-system, something similar to gate-systems being used overseas and in some Honshu resorts.

Niseko has had a strange off-piste policy. Resort advertising pictures promote skiers and boarders floating through neck deep powder - pictures that obviously haven’t been shot on any groomed resort run. Yet, if you do decide to head into these off-course areas, patrollers have the right to confiscate your pass. Luckily, in Niseko-Hirafu the out of bounds rule is enforced in only high-risk avalanche areas. Nevertheless, the resort’s ‘turning a blind eye’ policy isn’t really a satisfactory answer to a market that is becoming more and more backcountry oriented.

For the ill-informed, buying a 4600 yen day pass and hiking up with the crowds to do the run off the peak, could be a life and death experience. To help prevent disaster, the resort decided to install gates clearly defining where resort limits lie. Initially the gates were not to be manned – they were simply to have signs in Japanese and English explaining that from that point on you are in backcountry. The signs were to say that you enter these areas at your own risk, and that you would be charged extraction fees if any form of rescue is required. The gates were also to provide snow stability reports, and to highlight avalanche danger days.

Niseko backcountry is unpatrolled and no avalanche bombing occurs. Niseko’s patrollers are trained to look after you inside resort limits – very few have backcountry training or experience. The gates were to be a step towards heightening snow safety awareness for all. There was talk of introducing a check man who would ensure that those going beyond the gate are carrying the right equipment. The possibility of issuing Niseko backcountry licenses or cards for patrons was also discussed.

A couple of weeks before the season started, an article appeared in the Hokkaido Shinbun outlining the resort’s gate-system intentions. How the information got to the press is unclear, but as a result of the article, the following day the heads of Niseko-Hirafu resort were summoned to a meeting by the Hokkaido Shinrin Kanri Kyoku (Hokkaido’s Department of Forestry). Niseko-Hirafu mountain Nuppuri is in truth a national forest, and the resort has a special permit to operate a ski resort on it. Hokkaido’s Department of Forestry, backed up by the Rinyacho (Japan’s Department of Forestry), demanded that the gate-system be stopped. They argued that Niseko-Hirafu resort had no right to give people the option of going off resort limits and into national forest area.

As a consequence the resort had no option but to withdraw the scheme. The ridiculous thing is that people are skiing and snowboarding in national forest areas everyday. The gates would have helped reduce the numbers going outside of resort limits. I guess from a bureaucratic point of view, pretending nothing is wrong is easier than having to look for a possible solution to the problem.