The start of the Niseko season! It's open! The Niseko season has begun! After one false start, the lifts are moving and first tracks are being laid.

Well, before I get too carried away, more accurately at this stage only the Hirafu Alpen number 3 lift is moving, and everyone is being made to catch the centre-four lift back to the bottom again. The dedicated are out there shooting up and down this one little lift, practicing switch or perfecting their carving. It is no exaggeration to say that lift #3 accessible powder disappeared in under 10 minutes. Never fear! Only a little more patience is required - another couple days and lifts will move all the way to the top, and that's where the goodies are waiting.

The day before opening I was lucky enough to jump on to a snow groomer with patrollers, and have a first hand look at the top half of the mountain. The rain that hit Niseko on Nov 21 and washed away a lot of the snow around the village, seems to have come down as slushy snow at higher altitudes and has done no real damage. Furthermore, it appears to have packed the snow in and laid quite a good, stable base. There are still a lot of trees and shrubs sticking out, but the mountain looked pretty ready to me.

Hirafu as a resort is not well maintained during the off-season. Most Japanese resorts tend to do a bit of work and remove the rocks and tree debris that builds up over summer. Some resorts do such a good job they end up cultivating beautiful lawns that would impress most international golfers. By doing this pre-season preparation, the ground becomes quite ski-able with only about a 30cm base. Hirafu's policy, however, is to just let everything grow wild over summer, then wait for enough snow to cover all before opening. I like the growing wild concept, but the flip-side is that we really need about a metre of base before most of the rocks, stumps and felled trees start to disappear.

Whilst painting such a scary picture of what lies waiting under that soft powder snow, at the same time I can confidently say that in the years I have been riding in Niseko I have never once scratched the base on my board. The only damage I have ever done to a board has been by crashing into a tree, or when riding down the main road.

Road riding is such a tempting thing to do - strap your front foot in, and with a big smile, wave at the cars as you ride past. Highly illegal and dangerous, but also worth being aware that the harmless, white-looking snow on the side of the road is actually full of stones, bits of metal, and all kinds of not so friendly items. I learnt my lesson with a core-shot to my board. A friend hit a submerged fire hydrant and missed most of his season.

Transport in Hirafu is easy. The resort offers a free shuttle bus service that runs from first to last lifts, picking up and dropping off every 10 minutes across the village. The buses are twenty-six seaters, painted blue and white and are easy to pick. Ask your lodge owner where the closest shuttle stop is. For the return trip, the buses depart from the base of the gondola, and are the easiest and quickest way to get back to your lodge in one piece. With the shuttles though, one bit of advice - if you want to make first lifts, do the walk - don't wait. The buses start at 8:30, and the first lifts move around 8:20...

Niseko Hirafu ski resort had a curious beginning. In the 1950's Japan was going through a paper shortage, and started harvesting bamboo grass ["sasa" in Japanese] to use for paper production. The Niseko area is literally covered with this "sasa", and as a processing plant was being built in nearby Kutchan town, a small 'lift' was rigged up to carry the cut bamboo grass back to the bottom of the mountain. The company president at the time, a man by the name of Osamu Takenaka, had a mid-construction vision in June of 1961, and halted paper harvesting to pursue the dream of building a ski resort. The original sasa lift was converted into a person lift, and by December of the same year, the first customers were skiing in Hirafu.

Most of Niseko's mountain "Nuppuri" is actually protected wilderness area. Before official permission was received to go ahead and cull trees to open up ski runs, Takenaka realized that he was running out of time with winter approaching. Being a determined and pretty cluey fellow, he started preparing his ski runs from the top down - this way no one could see he had started work before being given the go-ahead. Hearing stories from those who were involved in this construction at this time, a lot of the physical labor was done manually and apparently it was really hard work.

At the time of opening, Niseko Hirafu began with three groomed runs running up to a height just below the present day gondola. During the second half of the '60's as Japan's ski boom started to take off, the resort spread out adding another 500 metres of elevation. Expansion continued, culminating eight years ago with the construction of the very popular "Hanazono" section. Having started as a sasa harvesting field, Niseko now boasts a total of 57 courses with 38 lifts and gondolas and over 47 kms of groomed slopes. Hirafu Kogen lift #1 stands pretty much where the original sasa lift used to be.

But we are not here to collect sasa! Dodge sasa, maybe... We are here for powder! For those who just can't wait any longer, the beginning of December beckons. The first couple weeks in December is a great time to be in Hirafu. The village is still half asleep with some restaurants and shops not having opened yet, but we are usually blessed with constant powder. Terrain-wise it is my favourite time of the year - with little snow base, land features are very distinct and there is lots of fun to be had! Keep an eye on the Niseko weather reports. If you can grab a few days off, a mountain empty of people and knee-deep in powder awaits.

For those thinking about a New Year's Niseko visit, my advice is where possible try and have a re-think. Best to pick dates outside of the Dec 28 thru Jan 3 period. During this time there are a lot of people on the mountain and accommodation is expensive and hard to come by.

For the few who have been quick enough to secure something however, this year's New Year's Eve party should be Niseko's biggest. Called "The End of the 20th Century Party", on Dec 31 from 8pm-1am Hirafu is hosting a party that is supposed to have everything. Offering night skiing performances, magic shows, live music, prize-giveaways and food stalls to fireworks, I think it will be a biggie.

Last year's highlight was probably the bunch of Australian lawyers who hiked up and whilst being chased by Hirafu patrol, rode down naked to welcome in the New Year. This year's party might come close to equaling this feat. Then again, there is a rumour that one of the same group will be in town again this New Year's...

Rug up warm, first tracks are waiting for all from December 1st. Here's to the weather behaving for the New Year's Eve party, but misbehaving with lots of powder over the next five months.

Photographs all copyright © upas / yoichi watanabe & Ben Kerr