2018 has been the best ski year of my life. I built out Van Go our Ford Transit campervan in Hawaii and shipped it to the mainland, but it was delayed three weeks by bad weather. While waiting we decided to go ski in Japan. It snowed 24 hours a day for eleven days of light fluffy powder snow…15cm a day, and it stayed at -15C. Deep and light. Japan doesn’t have long steep slopes, so its a lot of short powder laps, which works great for us. After ski, head back to the Onsen for a relaxing hot bath in volcanic heated mineral water. We stayed at Tokachidake and explored some new terrain. After we went to Asahidake and found some new lines on the backside of ridges. Both places had calm, deep, cold powder in the trees. Its becoming more crowded in Hokkaido as the word gets out world wide, but mostly Europeans, and Canadians. We only met a few Americans. We met some nice folks from Pemberton Canada who gave some some great travel ideas. Terrace BC will be a destination this summer and next winter. We also met some Norwegians who said Lofoten is the place to go.
