Do you really need a backcountry guide to get the most from a ski trip to Hokkaido?

This is a question almost every experienced skier and rider will ask themselves when planning a first visit to Hokkaido.

There isn’t an easy answer, as it depends on many different things. You certainly don’t need a guide to have a good time. The famous resorts are busy, but they aren’t North America busy, and it doesn’t mean you can’t have an amazing time when it’s dumping fluffy dry snow every day. You will have a good time on your first trip to Japan, no matter what.

But if you don’t use a guide, you’ll definitely miss out on some experiences. There are still somewhat undiscovered places where a guide can take you, where you won’t see anyone else, and you wouldn’t be able to access on your own in any remotely safe way as a visitor to Japan.

A guide’s secret spot

On a peak season Friday last season, Alpine Backcountry Guides took us to their “secret spot” on Ishiyama mountain, a locally well-known backcountry area, not far from Tomamu ski area, south of Furano.

 

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On this trip, we had started with a snowshoeing backcountry tour, then did an intro to backcountry tour with splitboards that was more gentle terrain. Now the plan was to take the next step and tackle something a bit more advanced. Our group of three snowboarders and one skier were looked after by lead guide and skier, Samuel Morrel, co-owner of Alpine Backcountry Guides, and tail guide Murray [Name] on a splitboard.

Samuel runs the guiding business, which he has taken over from his father, John Morrel, who now runs their rental business. Combined they have over 40 years of guiding experience in Hokkaido and say that they are the “only multi-generational international guiding company in Japan”.

We first made a stop at their lodge to pick up our rental splitboards and meet John.

John Morrel explains a splitboarding setup. Image: Aron Tarjani

They then drove us to the backcountry spot. What’s great about a day with a guide is, you don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to the right place. They’ll look at all the data and take you to the best spot with the best conditions with a firm eye on safety. Make sure you give your guide all the information on ability levels, what sort of terrain you are after, how comfortable you are with uphill travel, how fit you are and if there’s anything any of you really want to avoid. Then let them choose your destination. It’s best not to ask to be guidied at a certain place. There will likely be better conditions elsewhere.

We set up our equipment by the roadside and checked our transceivers.

Checking the equipment. Image: Aron Tarjani

It was a very cold, slightly windy day and snowing hard in bursts that came and went every minute or so. On the other tours we had done so far, the weather had been fine.

Like most touring in Hokkaido, it was a flat walk at first, then a slight incline through the woods with lots of tacking left and right and some technical sections where we had to navigate steep bumps. It was definitely a higher level of uphill touring compared to previous days.

The route through the forest. Image: Aron Tarjani

We made slow progress and took longer than we should have to get to the open area we intended to lap.

The cold made transitioning much harder for some of us. We had an experienced ski tourer in our group and we were obviously holding him back as he wizzed around taking photographs.

I got blisters from my new boots that were fine on the previous gentle tours but this was much steeper and caused my feet to sweat and boots to rub. Sam was great and twice helped me to remove my right boot and taped up my heel. I was slow and struggling but he never stopped being fun and friendly. Problem fixed, we pushed on.

Two lessons learnt: don’t wear new boots for touring, and always have a second pair of waterproof gloves for transitioning.

We emerged from the forest to find a wonderful open field of untouched beautiful low-angle champagne powder.

The ride was unreal.

The snow in the part of Hokkaido is drier than the coastal areas. Image: Aron Tarjani

Although it wasn’t steep, the snow conditions were unbelievable with fast, fluffy dry powder. Everyone had the time of their lives and it was worth the climb.

Because we’d been slow, we only got two runs in before our self-imposed deadline to be off the hill by 3pm because one of our group had a flight to catch. The second run was back through the forrest and very technical with pillows, bumps, tight trees and flat spots). This wasn’t easy riding or somewhere where you could back off and ease your way down. It had to be attacked. We then had a long flat walk out at the bottom, our previous tracks making it possible to walk out rather than use the splitboards.

Is a guide essential to experience this?

It’s not an easy question to answer, as it depends on many things:

• What kind of experience you’re looking for
• Your skill levels
• Where you usually ski or ride
• What are your expectations
• How much you want to get away from other people
• Your fitness levels
• How much you’re willing to spend

I’m not massively experienced in the backcountry, but I have been through this dilemma myself. Over the last two seasons, I’ve focused on trying out as many different guiding experiences as possible in Japan, including snowshoeing, splitboarding, CAT rides, in-bounds, lift-assisted sidecountry, lift-assisted backcountry (gates), and backcountry touring days.

I’ve also visited more than 60 of Japan’s ski resorts chasing that perfect unicorn resort where there’s deep, untouched powder all day with enough pitch to ride it and nobody else around. It still exists, but it’s getting much harder to find, especially in Hokkaido. With a guide’s professional, local knowledge, you can go straight there.

You can be lucky and stumble on the perfect conditions on a quiet day at a small resort and find a wonderful powder stash, but it doesn’t happen often. With a backcountry guide, you’re as close as you can get to guaranteeing it, conditions permitting.

Image: Aron Tarjani

At what point in my progression will a guide be useful?

So if we look at a skier or snowboarder’s progression from purely on piste to full-on backcountry touring, it might look something like this:

1. Dipping in and out of the untouched powder along the side of green and blue runs when it’s not too deep and your board or skis are still in contact with the hardpack underneath.
2. In bounds unpisted runs, where you start to learn how to turn and control yourself in deep powder.
3. Dipping in and out of the trees on the side of runs and tackling low-angle official tree runs with good spacing in deep snow.
4. Taking on intermediate and more advanced official tree runs/zones with tight trees, and black unpisted runs.
5. Tackling unmarked sidecountry routes.
6. Using lifts to access backcountry gates at ski resorts, exiting the gates and then returning to the ski resort base.
7. Visiting a backcountry area away from the ski resorts and getting up under your own steam with touring equipment, snowshoes, or a splitboard.

Step four is when a guide can start to help you, step five is where it becomes very useful, and six and seven are when a guide is strongly recommended, if not essential, even for experienced ski tourers coming to Japan without any local knowledge.

Yes, people come to Japan and find their own way in the backcountry, but people also die every year doing this, and fatalities are trending upwards.

You not only get local guiding knowledge of the actual topography and specific areas to avoid during specific conditions, but you also get the knowledge of where to go on any particular day to enjoy the best weather and snow. Wind, temperature, snow quality and depth can vary wildly in Hokkaido and the decision of where you actually go is the most important decision of the day.

Alpine Backcountry Guides have a new backcountry rental store in Furano. Image: Alpine Backcountry Guides

In-bounds guiding

For most of the popular powder hunting destinations in Japan that attract lots of international visitors, like Niseko, Rusutsu, Furano, Kiroro, Hakuba, and Nozawa Onsen, you can have an absolutely wonderful time without a guide’s help. You might struggle to find dream-like untouched stashes, and on powder days, you’ll have to deal with the frenzy and everything being tracked by 11am, but if your powder experience is limited, you’ll still have a great time.

If you decide to get a guide to show you around, then there’s a good chance you’ll get so much more out of your day. They’ll get you to meet at the lifts at the right time before the lines build up. On a powder day, they’ll know which run to hit first, to get you to the lift where the next section opens up and so on, so you’re one step ahead of the tourists who are just following their noses. Then, later in the day, they’ll guide you to the spots where the snow is protected, or show you the little hikes that unlock fresh lines and the safe routes where the danger levels are minimal and all lines feed back to the piste.

If you plan to stay in one resort for five days or more, a guide on the first or second day is a wonderful way to learn how a local scores the fresh stuff, and then you can use that knowledge on subsequent days.

At the popular resorts, going through the gates after a big dump can be carnage. If you’re expecting fresh tracks and being alone on the mountain, think again. At other, less popular resorts, you can make a leisurely stroll to the gates at 11am two days after it snowed and still get untouched fresh tracks. Only someone with local knowledge can tell you what the situation is likely to be where.

Is a backcountry guide really worth it?

Not everyone can afford a guide. This is a huge factor. A trip to Japan is already a big spend, so of course, if you don’t have the budget, it’s just not an option. If money isn’t an issue for you and you just want to know if it’s a worthwhile expenditure, it absolutely is.

Samuel Morrel of Alpine Backcountry Guides showing us how it’s done. Image: Aron Tarjarni

Do you want that dream-like experience where you and your group are the only people on a mountain face? Do you want to do unforgettable runs? Or would you rather do endless resort laps that you’ll forget in a few days’ time?

For someone like me who’s only half fit and carrying a couple of injuries that aren’t ever going away, it’s absolutely at the edge of my limit to spend three and a half hours walking uphill on a splitboard in thigh-deep snow. But it also allowed me to experience some of the best snow I’ll ever ride in my life. On the way up, I was sure it wasn’t worth it, but on the way down, it very much became worth it.

For me at least, the question isn’t whether you need a guide, it’s whether you need to climb a mountain. You don’t need to do it to enjoy Hokkaido, but if you are physically fit and you crave that alone in the wilderness, fresh, untouched powder experience, then you would be crazy not to do it at least once on a trip to Japan.

If you have any questions about guided tours in central Hokkaido, get in touch with Samuel at Alpine Backcountry Guides. Spring in the northern hemisphere is when their tours start filling up for next season for the peak dates in January and February, so get to it.