The rain and the fog have stopped our motivation short at Myoko and instead of skiing, we just drove straight to Niigata.
It was fairly straight going and (as always) full of interesting road signs....
We took the ferry as planned and then we were off for an 18 hours journey. The ferry was quite comfortable (there was even a free spa onboard!) and the sea was pretty calm so everything went pretty smooth!
There wasn't much to do, so we eat.... and sleep.....
We finally arrived at Tomakomai on Hokkaido at 4h30am. The thought of finally being cold again, not being able to cook a real supper because of the bad weather and putting ice frozen ski boots weirdly seemed quite appealing!
As we drove down of the ferry, we were excited by few cm of fresh snow on the ground and the cold weather....
Since there was a warm front few days ago coupled with some rain, my first plan was to go high, so we drove to Tokachi-dake. The weather was really nice and for the first time, I was able to get a good view at the surroundings mountain.
We put the skins on and started hiking. We soon realized that the rain had hit as high as where we were skinning, since there was a hard layer of ice underneath. Babiche really wanted to go summit Furano-dake, but my motivation was back-order and I just sat down like a kid, decided not to go further. We finally headed down on an unsteady slope that keep changing from smooth to ice.
There was a bit of snow on the forecast, so we drove up towards Kamui Ski Links, where I had such a good time with Amelie. We woke up in the parking lot with about 10cm of wet snow. As it was on my previous trip, the slackcountry of the peak was really nice and we lapped it all day rushing to make sure we were not going to miss a run. It was one of the first day in a while that we were skiing some fresh snow!
Since it was good but a bit wet to our taste, we thought that it might be better a bit up high. So I drove back to Floating Island, where I had some terrific days with my dad.
The slopes on the south side of the tunnel were affected by the sun, so we decided to ski the north side of the tunnel. As we were hiking, we realized that the snow was quite dry and that the crust was not that close to the surface.
We made up our mind to ski a the leeward side (where the wind deposit the snow) of the ridge we were hiking and that was a good decision!
We weren't feeling the crust and there was about a feet of snow everywhere! We lapped it all day not yet really realizing that we were having a real good powder day!!!
After one of our best day in weeks, we were wondering what the conditions would be elsewhere in the area. We drove south towards Sounkyo, where the ski hill call Kurodake is. It was so windy the following morning, that we figured our best bet would be to ski at the floating island once more!
The conditions were just getting better and we were skiing in a deep feet of snow! The snow has been falling on and off all day as we were making more and more turns.
Our mental health is getting better now with some more snow on the forecast for almost all week and temperature below the freezing level.
We don't feel quite adventurous, so we'll probably stick around the Floating Island a bit more waiting for the conditions to get better across the Island!
A few more powder days and I'll be heal from my dry-periodisis crisis!
evans
It was fairly straight going and (as always) full of interesting road signs....
We took the ferry as planned and then we were off for an 18 hours journey. The ferry was quite comfortable (there was even a free spa onboard!) and the sea was pretty calm so everything went pretty smooth!
There wasn't much to do, so we eat.... and sleep.....
We finally arrived at Tomakomai on Hokkaido at 4h30am. The thought of finally being cold again, not being able to cook a real supper because of the bad weather and putting ice frozen ski boots weirdly seemed quite appealing!As we drove down of the ferry, we were excited by few cm of fresh snow on the ground and the cold weather....
Since there was a warm front few days ago coupled with some rain, my first plan was to go high, so we drove to Tokachi-dake. The weather was really nice and for the first time, I was able to get a good view at the surroundings mountain.
We put the skins on and started hiking. We soon realized that the rain had hit as high as where we were skinning, since there was a hard layer of ice underneath. Babiche really wanted to go summit Furano-dake, but my motivation was back-order and I just sat down like a kid, decided not to go further. We finally headed down on an unsteady slope that keep changing from smooth to ice.
There was a bit of snow on the forecast, so we drove up towards Kamui Ski Links, where I had such a good time with Amelie. We woke up in the parking lot with about 10cm of wet snow. As it was on my previous trip, the slackcountry of the peak was really nice and we lapped it all day rushing to make sure we were not going to miss a run. It was one of the first day in a while that we were skiing some fresh snow!
Since it was good but a bit wet to our taste, we thought that it might be better a bit up high. So I drove back to Floating Island, where I had some terrific days with my dad.The slopes on the south side of the tunnel were affected by the sun, so we decided to ski the north side of the tunnel. As we were hiking, we realized that the snow was quite dry and that the crust was not that close to the surface.
We made up our mind to ski a the leeward side (where the wind deposit the snow) of the ridge we were hiking and that was a good decision!
We weren't feeling the crust and there was about a feet of snow everywhere! We lapped it all day not yet really realizing that we were having a real good powder day!!!
After one of our best day in weeks, we were wondering what the conditions would be elsewhere in the area. We drove south towards Sounkyo, where the ski hill call Kurodake is. It was so windy the following morning, that we figured our best bet would be to ski at the floating island once more!
The conditions were just getting better and we were skiing in a deep feet of snow! The snow has been falling on and off all day as we were making more and more turns.
Our mental health is getting better now with some more snow on the forecast for almost all week and temperature below the freezing level.
We don't feel quite adventurous, so we'll probably stick around the Floating Island a bit more waiting for the conditions to get better across the Island!A few more powder days and I'll be heal from my dry-periodisis crisis!
evans
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