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6th March 2001
It's March and spring is in the air in Niseko. Seven straight weeks
have just passed where the temperature has only crept up as high as minus
10?
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....that's right, a top temperature way colder than most household freezers.
Most of the time we were preserved between minus 15 and 20. Wow it was a cold
season. But wow the snow was good.
The last couple of days have been sunny and somewhere around freezing point.
Still sounds kinda cold, but suddenly there are lots of people walking around
with just t-shirts on. Conversation switches to tales of white-water rafting
(great rivers in Niseko when all this snow melts!), but hang on - there are
still more than two months left in the season! T-shirts or not, the rivers are
still all frozen over and the snow is way too good to think about putting
snowboards away for another season. With a current base of 3 to 4 metres, and
with quite a few good powder dumps still on the cards, there will be plenty to
last through to and beyond the official resort closing date of May 6th.
Along with the warmer weather over the last week or so In Hirafu, a couple
of interesting things have been taking place: one good, one potentially not so
good. The good news is we almost have a board park - a collection of
rail-slides, table-top jumps, quarters and spine jumps, and they are pretty
well made. The bad news is Niseko could be facing it's biggest avalanche for
years.
According to Hirafu Resort spokesperson Mr Tachibana, questionnaires were
handed out last season to people as they bought their lift tickets, and the two
biggest complaints about the mountain were i) no board park, and ii) bad
connection between some of the lifts. For over five years people have been
agitating to get Hirafu to do something about these two issues, and finally it
appears action has been taken.
As Niseko continues to lose out to Rusutsu and Kiroro in the marketing game,
declining lift ticket sales have opened even the sleepiest eyes and the go
ahead has been given to make the resort more fun. For this season, our new
jumps and rails have been spread over five or six locations across the
mountain. If they were concentrated into one area there is enough out there to
make up a really good little park, but what we have been given for starters is
a test to see what happens.
Niseko's resort officials live in fear of two things; i) an increase in
injuries, and ii) the shugaku-ryoko instructors. Hirafu has been visited by 60
school excursion groups December thru February this season, each group
containing on average 200 screaming second year high school 17 year old boys
and girls. Coming to Hokkaido from all over Japan, they are all equipped with
the same rental wear (usually yellow, purple or red spacesuits), and are
referred to up here as the penguin brigade. The majority of the students are
beginners, and when two or three different school groups converge on Hirafu at
the same time, the lower mountain beginner lift areas become flooded with pools
of colour.
According to Mr Tachibana, the original plan was to locate Hirafu's board
park next to the half-pipe. This area, however, is utilized by the
shugaku-ryoko instructors for beginner lessons and the project met fierce
resistance. For this season the penguin brigade instructors won and hence our
jumps have been scattered around the mountain. Nevertheless negotiations
continue, and Mr Tachibana is adamant that next season a suitable site will be
found and Hirafu will have a unified park.
There is another reason why the resort is trying hard to keep people within
limits at present. This year's long consistent cold winter has created a super
deep and stable base. Usually we have warm days speckled through January and
February, creating unstable layers in the snow and then little avalanches. This
season has been so stable, even the areas notorious for sliding haven't let go
once. Locals who have been skiing and boarding Niseko for ten years or more
claim to have never seen anything like this. There is an amazing load of
compressed snow out there, and now as the weather starts to do it's spring
thing, stability is turning to instability.
Niseko resort does not patrol any areas outside the course map. When asked
why there is no bombing, Mr Tachibana explains that the area is national forest
so the resort is unable to carry out such acts. He also emphasizes that Hirafu
does not have the manpower or the know-how to be able to patrol backcountry
areas. "It is our job to ensure people's safety within Hirafu. When skiers
or boarders go backcountry, they do so at their own risk. We cannot stop people
going, but don't expect us to look after you."
Mr Tachibana tells me of an incident towards the end of January this season
when a lone skier hiked to the peak then attempted to ski down the back bowl to
Goshiki Onsen. With poor visibility he became disorientated and actually skied
further north towards Weiss. After attempting to walk through waist deep powder
for an hour without snowshoes or any survival equipment, the lost man gave up
and called the emergency 119 number from his cell phone. The only landmark
information he was able to provide was a visible 40km/h road sign.
Five hours later he was picked up safely by a snow groomer, and I am told
was invoiced a substantial rescue fee. When asked why he tried to do some
serious backcountry by himself in poor visibility without any equipment, his
reply was This holiday I only have one day to ski in Niseko, and as I did the
same run last year I thought it would be ok.
At this stage, because Niseko provides no accurate daily avalanche data for
people looking to go further afield, I guess it really is up to those riding
out there to look after themselves and their friends. It is a well-worn figure,
but the fact is 90% of avalanches are released by an individual or his/her
friends. The problem is amplified when on a sunny Sunday we have hundreds of
people wanting to ski off the Niseko peak. It might just be mister "I did
the same run last year I thought it would be ok" cutting the snow above
you.
When going backcountry, three rules that seem to make sense to me are;
i) Don't ride by yourself
ii) Carry the right equipment
iii) Know how to use it
Spending $500-$1000 on a beacon, probe and shovel is a lot of money, but if
your mate / girlfriend is buried even only a couple metres away, having or not
having this equipment will make the difference. If you are not using beacons
regularly, spend a little more and get the digital version - much easier. Even
then it's worth doing the occasional hide and search practice, and testing
receive / transmit signals and batteries before every use.
Niseko is our mountain to enjoy both on and off the groomed runs. Here's to
nobody being caught when the slab decides to release.
Pictures thanks to Fatty
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