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Hakkoda is famous for it's unpredictable and bad weather. There's even a story/legend?? about some Japanese soldiers that were training up there and the weather got bad - they lost their way and died. My wife and her family all advised against going to Hakkoda but I think the mystery of not knowing only encouraged my buddy and I to give it a go. We drove 3-4 hours from Sendai. The first day we tried to go up the lift it was closed (high winds). The next day it was open for a short time but would soon close do to high winds and adverse weather - we had about a 30 minute window of opportunity. So we got our gear together and made it in time to go up. When we arrived at the top my mental expectations all came true. Visibility: 2 meters max. I had never seen anything like it. I seriously felt like I was in one of those climbing Mt. Everest movies. We were told to stay in-between "the orange poles." At some points the orange poles were hard to locate and at one point I was riding completely blind (my goggles were fogged too!) at which time I fell 2 meters into a hole - board landing in a tree - my head pointing down. I managed to get out of the hole and as I shouted to myself "this isn't fun!!" I heard a gaijin voice reply from somewhere "you have to be a masachist (spelling?) to enjoy this..(pause).. I love this place!!" Anyway, a few more incidents on the way down and the experience was finally over. I'm going to drive back to Hakkoda this summer so I can see what the mountain looks like because I surely haven't seen it yet.

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for the time and money it takes to get to hakkoda from tokyo you would be better off going to hokkaido...

 

don't believe the hype...check out my journal for more details...

 

danz

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here is something to think about...

 

The tram services 660 vertical meters

it is 2,459 meters long

 

I am sure you all took geometry at one point in your lives...

 

usually a tram at a ski resort means it has lots and lots of vert, and you need that to get to the top (like in europe), or it is super steep (jackson hole)...hakoda has a tram because you need to traverse over 1km of basically flat national forest...

 

I don't mean to sound so negative, and the snow there can be great, but....

 

danz

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Hakkoda is my local hill, so I feel I can prolly offer some comment.

 

Danz, when you came to hakkoda, I didn`t know the hill that much better than you guys, and at the time I was inclined to agree with your comments. However, after a season, your perspective changes a bit.

 

One thing I can`t disagree with is the flat comment. It doesn`t matter which run you take, at some point it will be flat. Once you come to accept this, its OK - you are only disappointed when you have expectation.

 

So is it flat everywhere? No! OK, so it ain`t Corbetts Couloir or anything, but there are alot of great pitches on the hill, you`ve just got to know where they are. I didn`t when Danz came, but I do now, and man they are fun!

 

The weather? I`ve had about 50 days on the hill so far, and only had wind hold once. Kintaro, not saying you`re wrong, just saying you`re unlucky! Of course it is often windy, but usually its from a direction that doesn`t cause a problem for the lift (ie parallel to rather than side on).

 

The visibility is a problem, but once you know where you`re going, the trees provide some depth perception. Of course the drifts and tree wells are an issue, but thats half the fun!

 

So anyone who comes to hakkoda, please bear a few things in mind - a)don`t judge it by the two official courses - the best stuff is under the ropes, B) accept that you have to deal with a bit of flat somewhere c) stick to the trees in white out conditions.

 

I felt like Danz at the beginning of the season, but I have grown to fall in love with this place. For all its quirks, there is a lot of good powder to be had!

 

Hope this helps anyone thinking about paying Hakkoda a visit.

 

Cheers,

 

Hem now

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Ill agree with hem. I have only been down the Direct course 1 time and if thats all that was there I dont think anyone would bother. I guess I was lucky that the first few times I was there I was skiing with Guides from Sakayu onsen and they just took us straight to the goods. the first 100 metres are usually a bit of a challange but onece you get to trees that havent been monsterified then you can see fine no matter what the weather.

However I do enjoy the fast pow laps at geto (now I know where to find them) But for longer missions (esp BC) hakkoda is pretty good.

There are a few ppl that fly up from Tokyo every weekend for all of winter so it cant be that bad.

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more on the soldiers

I cant remember how many but 100 - 200 japanese soldiers died in the hills there (of cold) while fighting russians about 100 years ago.

there is a bronze (dozo) statue at the bottom of the "dozo route" commerating them.

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Jared,

 

yep, it was 199 soldiers that died. 11 lived, and only 3 of those had nothing amputated.

 

It is still the biggest mountaineering disaster in the world, even some 90 years later!

 

There is a dinky museum in Aomori with photos and stuff. For anyone using the ropeway, there is a photo of the soldiers at the top of the stairs just before you get in the tram.

 

hem now

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I don't think they were fighting Russians in Aomori. It was one of those excellent 'mind over matter' Japanese training exercises. Matter won in this case.

 

There were some other notable examples of Navy training exercises where matter won on that inland sea near danz (sorry to bring you into all this old boy).

 

I had a slight feeling that Kintaro's posting might be leading to something about hearing plaintive bugles while scooting between the snow monsters... eek.gif

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Hem Now has pretty much said it all and what it boils down to is you have to learn the place and then enjoy. I'd recommend it to anybody as long as you have a person of knowledge with you. I'm a freak for extreme weather so I loved the place the first time I went. It's just has been described - no vis, high winds, and deep pow. The place rocks for Japan.

 

Now here's where I differ. If I had the choice to ski between Hakkoda and Bachelor, Meadows, Baker, Heavenly, Ashland, etc... in the US NW, I would hands down choose those others. But being here in Japan, Hakkoda is completely different from anything else I've skied. I haven't been to Niseko yet (next season) but as far as technical skiing goes, Hakkoda is one of the best in the north. And the powder cannot be argued with.

 

Fun Fact - My Japanese buddy said that the site of the soldiers' death is the most haunted place in Japan. Apparently they filmed a TV show there and caught some paranormal lights and such on camera. It was 199 guys that died in a blizzard doing a trainging excercise.

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I agree with hem now. This is my second season at Hakkoda and it was amazing, I didn't bother going anywhere else, except Hachimantai forest a couple times and a trip to Niseko, which unfortunately wasn't the best weekend to go, but obviously there's major potential. The weather at the top can be brutal but this year I caught at least 6 days where it was absolutely clear at the top, indescribably perfect boarding!!

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