pwat42

Trees lower down will be no good, maybe up at yamabiko will be bushy though

Hey 69 will be based in yuzawa for 5 days then minakami for 10 days

Ill be around Kagura/Hakkaisan/Tenjindaira from 20 Jan to 4 Feb if you are keen to have a riding partner, will be with a small crew riding BC etc

Check out hakkaisan, also i havent been but Tengendai in Yamagata looks promising. Google Tadashi Fuse and Friends in Japan and there is a good vid, terrain looks awesome.

I spent two seasons in BC the tree skiing in certain areas is just as good as BC and japan blows BC away in the snow and crowd department.

Are the runs on the bottom left hand corner of the trail map part of the resort? Looks like it has some ok terrain as well.

Its amazing how much snow absorbs sound you could be only 20-30 meters away from somebody yelling your head off and they can barley hear you.

Gozaimaas how did you find the riding at Ryuoo was going to trip it over there from Noz this year but didnt go due to snow conditions. Worth it for a few days or only a day trip?

Southern area in Gala is ok ish. The rest is flat rubbish.

Akakura Kanko and Suginohara are the only ones with decent riding. But only the top lifts have any decent pitch the rest is pretty flat. I found the resorts in Yuzawa and Nozawa way better.

Ill be based in minakami for a bit next year Gunma Boarder is it easy to get there from there? Will have BC gear so would be keen to meet up if you want. Will shout you beers and food for a tour!

My first trip to niseko tony crocker was staying there He ran all the stats and said that historically 70%+ of the snow in hokkaido falls from the second half of December to the end of January. Given that you want a base is why i generally start all my trips mid to late jan and end in the first or second week of feb.

You would be suprised how long the main face stays fresh legion. They only open the left gondola during the week. But we lapped that 9 times on a pow day before it started to get a bit choped on the main ungroomed pow runs. Was a 15 minute lap as well the fall line is super consistent. The valley on the right is great fun. Like i said before the conditions were to sketchy for the left hand side. The main entrance to the upper bowls on the left hand side is pretty heavily corniced as well.

Kagura, Hakkaisan and Tenjindaira. You will be in heaven. When i was at Naeba we had a meter of snowfall on sheet ice with crazy winds, which unfortunately ruled out alot of the Naeba side country. The trees of the top down to the dragondola were good and discrete. The area (yuzawa and gunma) as a whole has massive potential and i will be back next year for sure.

Trees are very widely spaced. But you are very visible and patrol will chase you. Also the area is very very steep and cops a fair bit of wind so is really unstable and risky. Saw a few naturals especially lookers left of the top. Kagura on the other hand is the perfect backcountry spot super safe and great options of the peak with an easy hike. Gets way more snow as well.