Last day at Niseko off piste at Hanazono in good snow then transfer to Rusutsu

Japan ski trip 2017 ski day 7.  Our last day in Niseko. We had hoped to ski up and down the big volanoe Yotei but weather and access was against us.

The visibility was not so good and strong winds up high meant the top lifts were closed so Dave and I bought 5 hour tickets and skied the off piste run at Gate 9 hunting out fresh tracks through the trees.

We then headed across to Hanazono and skied Gate 5 staying left and dropping into a creek that had a a cat track that went up both ways.  We followed a boot trail for a short while then decided to continue down the creek for a long way, eventually emerging at the bottom station of Hanazono.  We skied the rest of our runs from Gate 5 traversing back to get the top chair.

The chair had a hood so it was good for snacking and drinking.

We skied back to Hirafu then walked down to the backpackers arriving at 2:30.  After a nice cup of tea we packed rapidly then Niss drove us to the Welcome Centre and we boarded the local Donan bus to Rusutu.

We passed through some reasonable sized towns then arrived at the massive Rusutsu Resort with light snow falling,  A short walk got us to our lodgings at Pension Skybe.  The guy there spoke no english but we got into our room for a rest.

Dave and I headed out for a fantastic dinner at the nearby traditional Yochan restaurant (Izakaya). I had a crab steamboat and Dave had Mongolian Mutton.  A very filling meal and a friendly place.

Yochan restaurant (Izakaya)

Pension Sky Be

Rusutsu Izakaya Tampopo Shokudo

GPS log

Niseko-Annapuri summit runs in fresh snow

Japan ski trip 2017 ski day 5. Our first day at Niseko. We skied several runs from the Niseko-Annapuri summit access via Gate 3 and once via Gate 2. Its about 20 minutes to hike up the the summit. There is a little shelter cabin there.   The gate system is interesting.  Ski patrollers open them and sometimes check that your avalanche transceiver is on, and tell you "no patrol".

We dropped off the summit and skied the south west face dropping into a prominent gully that took us back to the piste and the Annapuri gondola lift.

The snow was great up high - fresh and deep.  Its a big enough hike to keep the hordes away.  There is nice easy angle tree skiing further down then a fast run into the gully and back to the piste.

I was lightly dressed and warmed up on the climbs but got a bit cold on the descents in the -5C temperature.  The gondolas lifts and chairs with bubbles provide some protection from the elements but the very top lifts are single chairs with no safety bar!

We finished the day with some great off piste runs from the top of the Grand Hirafu gondola, walking up the small hill behind it then descending through trees into a nice gully.

There were no massive queues. Its a huge resort with lots of lift capacity.   There are lots of foreigners skiing.  We met Swedes, Americans, Canadians, Australians and Kiwis.

GPS log