 Poster: A snowHead
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21st/22nd January weekend skiing at Akukura Kanko resort and backcountry
Travel: I departed Tokyo Station on the 06:16 Shinkansen to Nagano, got a local train to Myokokogen and a bus up resort arriving at the gondola at 9am on the dot. Top tip, as someone did suggest on the Niseko thread, you don’t need to buy a ticket before boarding the local train which helps greatly as there is a tight connection and you can’t buy this advance. Instead, you can pay as you exit Myokokogen.
Snow: It has been a low snow year in Myoko with rain the previous weekend but I got lucky with 20-40cm of fresh over Friday night, Saturday morning, depending on aspect and altitude. It then stayed cold which meant that when touring on the Sunday the snow was still very good quality
Gear: I hired skis from Dancing Snow who are a first-class organisation. They don’t rent boots and only do mid fat to very fat skis and some telemark gear and you get a slight discount if you also using their guiding service which is their primary business
Day 1 – 21/01
Dancing snow weren’t sure if there was sufficient snow for touring so I skied in resort on my own. It’s a pleasant ski area, 5 fast lifts and a gondola, some long queues for the first hour or so the I was on the mountain and then they completely disappeared, I don’t really understand where everybody went. Some quite exciting turns in the trees skier’s left from the top lift but while it was all largely tracked out I was hesitant to explore too much on my own, some very nice bits of piste skiing as well
Huge Queues first thing but by 11:00 you could ski straight onto this lift
Fresh snow on an abandoned piste
Day 2 – 22/01
Dancing Snow decided that there was now just about enough snow to ski in the backcountry so we headed to the neighbouring resort of Ikenotaira and got a single ride to the top. From there we toured up through some beautiful larch? forest with the sun coming and going. Coming down the snow was much better than the previous day, it had barely snowed overnight but I wasn’t aware of the crust at all while skiing whereas on the Saturday wherever I found untracked snow I would be aware of the crust beneath it. I had changed to Volkl Shiros at 119mm underfoot which have helped in keeping me floating. A fantastic ski down through the forest, skins on once more for a shorter climb, and then a really long descent back to Akuraka Kanko. A great day and with loads of snow forecast for this week next weekend should be even better
Pretty forest in the sun on the climb
By the top the weather had turned a little but visibility was still good
Enjoying the forest
Thowing some questionable shapes
Part 2 to follow at some point next week
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 30-01-23 6:58; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Looking forward to part 2!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Nice - thanks for the report - keep it coming - I’ll be there soon 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Looks like you're all queued up to go into somebodies house and not a lift shed. Looks like fantastic conditions!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Akakura Kanko - Part 2 of 2 - 28th/29th January
Saturday 28th January
I went for the same travel itinerary as the previous weekend, travel to Tokyo on the Friday night, 06:16 Shinkansen to Nagano and the local train to Myokokogen however it didn’t quite go smoothly this time. There was too much ice or snow and to my surprise the local train gave up 1 stop before Myokokogen. There were some Japanese speaking Brits who I befriended but even they couldn’t get a taxi and in the end I called Dancing Snow and they picked us up for an incredibly reasonable price for which we were all very grateful.
I found the skiing a little disappointing, it had snowed a lot over the last week and Dancing Snow weren’t keen to tour because of the avalanche conditions. This left me skiing on my own and reluctant to leave the resort boundaries, 1 piste was closed for avalanche risk and skiing steep out of bounds terrain solo in those conditions felt foolhardy. Where there was fresh snow inbounds it was so deep that I just came stop in it and then struggled to extract myself which wasn’t what I was expecting although BobinCH did detail similar in his trip report. This left me skiing on mogulled pistes with no visibility on a fairly daft pair of skis, it wasn't the powder day that I had hoped for but skiing is always fun.
It wasn’t a day for photos but here is one from the walk back to my guest house after dinner/drinks with the guys I meant on the train. Luckily the guest house has an 11pm curfew which largely prevented a hangover!
Sunday 29th January
The day dawned bright and beautiful, Dancing Snow said touring was on and I got round there for 08:30. The group for the day was the same guide as last weekend and a very strong American couple. Took the lifts to the top of Kanko started touring up straight from there:
We didn’t climb as much as last weekend but the fresher snow and steeper terrain made it more challenging. I am still fairly new to kick new turns and was wasting energy until the guide gave me some really good tips.
As we summited it clouded over again, but the visibility was still fine, and we no longer as interested in the view anyway
The snow was much more skiable than the day before and we had a fantastic descent of just over 1000m finding fresh tracks all the way. Some bits needed to straight-lined to keep momentum but an awful lot of fun and the deepest snow that I have ever skied
A horrendous traverse with a lot of side stepping lead us back to the resort. I did a couple of lift served tree laps trying (and failing) to keep up with the two Americans, tracked out but still soft in places, but by then my thighs were shot and we called it a day. A really great day of skiing
A big shout out to Dancing Snow who I really feel made every effort to make sure that I had a great time and without whom I would not have got to experience what Japan skiing is about. I would highly recommend
https://www.dancingsnow.com/index.php
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@rambotion, very interesting!
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@rambotion, nice TR and that is a cracking photo you've got!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Fabulous
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Excellent TR. Great pics!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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