Hunting for the PowPow in Niseko, Hokkaido — Jan 2023
With a season average snowfall of 15 meters, Niseko has always been known for consistent powder skiing. We fondly remember our first trip to Hokkaido about 4 years ago as the most powder we’ve ever experienced in our years of skiing. During that trip, every evening the sky would invariably start dumping snow, and every morning we were treated with fresh fluffy snow on the mountain.
This meant in our last Hokkaido ski trip had no element of “hunting for PowPow”, because the PowPow was already everywhere. Reading from this below chart from a local Niseko magazine, it seemed what we remembered as legendary four years ago was just an average season for the region.
We were less lucky this year. The week prior to our arrival saw a stretch of unusually warm weather and lack of snow that unprecedentedly shrunk the snowpack and turned snow into ice (thanks, climate change) :
01/16 Grand Hirafu （グラン・ヒラフ）
On the afternoon of our arrival in Niseko, the un-groomed ski runs in the lower mountain that we remembered to be full of powder at Grand Hirafu even for night skiing (i.e. “Super”) was full of very icy moguls under a thin layer of very chopped-up recent powder. The soft but irregular soft layer on top made it it impossible to see the shapes of underlying ice. It was actually more miserable to ski that than the pure but visible icy moguls we were used to on the East Coast and the Pacific Northwest.
The un-groomed run with the best condition we explored today was Miharashi. Not surprising given a short hike up is required to access it. Lesson #1 of Niseko (and universal) Pow hunting: runs that require hiking up to it has less traffic and therefore generally better snow.
01/17 Niseko Village, G11 gate and Annupuri （アンヌプリ）
Luckily, 10 cm of new snow overnight improved the situation drastically the next morning. We lapped the upper snowfield 4 times with some nice powdery turns, but it soon became too cold and windy given the wind exposure and low temperatures.
The lines to wait for the hooded lift and gondola (albeit still a lot shorter compared to most of the US resorts) in Grand Hirafu motivated us to try our luck elsewhere. We ventured into the Niseko Village portion of the mountain, and the crowd suddenly disappeared. Niseko Village being a more beginner oriented part of the mountain meant the off-piste black runs were essentially untouched. Thus Lesson #2 of Niseko Pow hunting: stay away from Hirafu (where most intermediate and advanced skiers congregate) .
The Niseko Village Gondola also offers easy access to the Mizuno-no-sawa (水野の沢) backcountry gate. This gate is special in Niseko as the only gate access backcountry area in Niseko with patrol performing avalanche control. This adds a layer of additional safety, but carrying avalanche gear and usual caution is still strongly recommended as with other backcountry gates in Niseko.
After a stretch of uphill travel, we were soon awarded with some untracked snow behind the G11 gate (see pictures below) on some open and steep slopes, followed by glades. Thus Lesson #3 of Niseko Pow hunting: take advantage of the backcountry gates. The gates would be closed if the avalanche risks are high; however when that’s the case, the snow within the resort boundary is likely pretty darn good to keep you happy anyways :)
One of the best part of the Niseko gates is the serenity that rivals the real, hiking-access-only backcountry but without costing the sweat equity. During the 30+ minutes we spent in the Mizuno-no-sawa area, we did not see another skier/snowboarder the entire time. It’s just snow, mountain, sky, and a lot of silence to help soak it all in.
However, despite these good looking pictures, even in the area that looks fresh and untracked, our skis would often hit unpredictable hard icy crust underneath the soft layer. Hitting them easily knocks you out of balance and exhaust the leg muscles really fast. Although in hindsight this challenging condition probably contributed to the lack of crowds and aforementioned serenity.
01/18 Annupuri （アンヌプリ）and G1, G7, G8 gates
Today we spent the day exploring the Annupuri side of the mountain. After a few warmup runs, we started our exploration of Annupuri backcountry gates at G7, Ee-sawa (ええ沢).
The runs in the G7 gate is the most mellow of all the backcountry gates in Niseko. It’s a great option as the first gate to explore with low avalanche risk and less steep terrain. It’s also a great option later in the day that provides a balance between the desire of wanting to make some fun turns in powdery snow while dragging two sore legs after multiple days of challenging off-piste skiing.
We then explored the G1 and G8 gates:
- Staying skier’s left from G1 was great fun with mix of steeper tree runs that exit to a valley bottom
- Crossing to the other side of the valley (skier’s right) from G1 was miserable. Being South facing, the slopes were a lot icier. Also lots of traversing on this icy surface was required
- G8 has slightly less vertical and steepness than G1 but access the same general area. We found staying skier’s left close to the boundary had even more power compared to G1, and much more convient to access (directly accessible from the Gondola)
01/18 Hanazono
We had originally planned to explore the G5 or G9 gates in the Niseko Hanazono (花園) area for last day in Niseko. However, after warming up in an ironically named and innocent sounding “Strawberry Fields” run (turned out to be a challenging tight trees+mogul run) I realized my quads were sore beyond saving, and we ended up skiing within the Hanazono resort boundary.
Fortunately, visibility was the best we had on this trip. The blue sky and views of Yotei mountain (羊蹄山) made every run scenic:
Even the views from the Hirafu parking lot was awe-inspiring:
The other highlight of the day was discovering Niseko Hanazono, despite being part of the same Niseko United mega-resort as Hirafu, Niseko village, and Annupuri, has a completely different vibe from the other three areas due to its upscale infrastructure.
In the US, we’ve never prioritized going to resorts for the fancy and rich such as Vail so I cannot offer a comparison, but Hanazono’s swankiness blew us away. The hooded bubble lift, for example, has heated leather seats that makes you feel like riding in a luxury car:
The Gondola is also brand new, massive (fits 10 people per cabin) and provides almost 360 view.
Later I read this Bloomberg feature that told the story behind Hanazono’s swankiness. It turns out to be a bold investment move by an Australian business man backed by Hong Kong money. This is in stark contrast to other ski resort infrastructure in Japan (including the other 3 resorts in Niseko United) which hasn’t seen much upgrades at all after the economic bubble bust. “American resorts build more than 20 lifts a year. The number of new lifts in Japan over the past decade? Six.” Although the pandemic added wrinkles, the investment seems to be paying off “Hanazono is taking an increasing portion of Niseko sales” as more Niseko skiers is flocking to the fancy side of the mountain.
On-mountain food
We tried 3 different lunch spots in the Niseko resort area:
- Nook Cafe (“New Sanko”) at the bottom of Annupuri was our favorite this trip. It has an expansive menu and freshly made food— the spaghetti actually tasted better than most places we tried in Italy. The pricing was fair (<10 US$/person), crowd management was under control — cafeteria style ordering process on a machine, fast service, and large capacity.
- King Bell Hut near the top of Hirafu was one of the worst on-mountain meals we’ve ever had, which is impressive considering it’s Japan and the average food quality is so high. Unfresh ingredients and bad taste. The Hokkaido specialty soup curry we ordered gave both of us instant stomachaches for hours. We went there because I remember a few years ago going to the the best-reviewed food place on the mountain, Bo-yo-so (望羊荘), to be not a great experience. It was so crowded and crammed for space and had a limited menu. We truly regret going to King Bell instead this time.
- At the bottom of Niseko Village there’s a street with traditional architecture and a few restaurants (no cafeteria style). We went to Yang Shu Ten, which had a menu of many upscale items and an extremely grumpy waitress (who unsurprisingly does not sound or look ethnic Japanese…). The food was so-so for food in Japan, but pretty good for US mountain food standards.
Off mountain food
For hotel, we stayed at One Niseko Resort Tower (amazing value, highly recommend), near the base of Niseko Moiwa and Niseko Annupuri to avoid the crowds and the high costs of the Hirafu town. We tried three izakaya (居酒屋) places in the nearby area for our three nights here. Unlike Hirafu (比羅夫), the Annupuri region doesn’t have a town center and is not very walkable. To make up for this, most of the restaurants actually offer car pickup service to/from your hotel.
One lesson learned hunting for food in the Annupuri area is the importance of calling ahead to make reservations at least one day in advance, even for these seemingly more off-the-beaten-path places compared to Hirafu. Most of the staff tend to speak English, given Niseko’s status as an international destination.
And one aspect of general food culture I much prefer Japan’s over US’s is interacting with waiting staff. In Japanese izakayas, when the diner need anything (from ordering to complaining to payment), you are supposed to say “Su-mi-ma-sen” (すみません/excuse me) to grab the waiter’s attention. If you don’t say anything, the staff simply leaves you alone. I find this to be so much more efficient and pleasant than the US way, where strangely the waiter seems to have all the power and control in the relationship. They decide when to initiates contact, always interrupt conversation to pressure you to either order more or pay faster — and they somehow never come by at the right time.
Kobito — gmap, tabelog, website
The restaurant name, Kobito (小人), refers to small forest fairies (literally means little people), so to go in, one has to go through a tiny door. Although we were lucky to get a seat without a reservation right at opening time, this meant we had to sit at the counter. The constant grilling smoke coming at us at the counter distracted from the eating experience, even though the food was quite interesting and delicious (~20US$/person).
Après Bar Milkys gmap, insta
The next day, we decided to get some Après drinks while waiting for our dinner reservation, and came across this gem of a place opened only a few months ago. It’s a coffee shop in the day and cocktail bar in the evening. The lone bartender is a cool guy who makes unique cocktails, skies the mountains during the day (he showed us some crazy pictures of a daring line he skied in the backcountry right before an avalanche) and tends the bar at night (previously at Bar Gyu+ in Niseko), and also is a rafting/kayak guide during the summer. Later in the trip, we got to visit some incredible bars in Sapporo thanks to his recommendations.
Luckyfingers (ラッキーフィンガーズ) — gmap tabelog website
Luckyfingers is an izakaya with incredible vibes of Japanese and Western fusion. The decor makes one feel like part of a Murakami novel. The kitchen and waiting staff are multi-racial that speaks Japanese and English equally well. The menu also makes use of both Japanese and Western culinary traditions well, the fries were some of the best we’ve ever had. It’s on the fancier/precier end (we spent ~35$/person) but the vibes partially made up for it.
