Asahidake, the paradise of powder snow

Nine out of ten skiers, "fanatics" of powder snow, will tell you that

Asahidake

is the Mecca of backcountry skiing.

There you will ski submerged in the most abundant, lightest and driest snow that can be found on the entire planet;

yes, when the pandemic allows it.

Asahidake is located in

Daisetsuzan National Park

, in the middle of the island of Hokkaido, the second largest in the country.

Being far from the sea, the snow is very light and abundant.

But even with such an advantage for winter sports, Asahidake is not a ski resort.

enlarge photo Asahidake cable car.

Eduardo Salete Balder

At the end of the town, called Asahidake Onsen and which is basically a tiny and scattered village with some hotels along the road, you reach the cable car, Sanroku station.

A facility whose entrance is the souvenir shop, the bathrooms and the lockers.

The restaurant and the cabin are accessed by stairs, and it is usually occupied by the queue of skiers waiting their turn for their trip to the upper station, 500 meters vertically up the mountain.

There is nothing else.

In fact, the cable car, Asahidake ropeway, was not built with skiers in mind, but hikers.

No

apreski,

no

lounges

and there is

no nightlife in Asahidake Onsen, except for

a typical dinner

hokkaidoense

and a good thermal bath at the hotel.

Is the paradise.

enlarge photo In Daisetsuzan National Park, Asahidake is pure Japanese nature and culture.

Eduardo Salete Balder

From Sanroku station, the cable car cabin goes up to Sugatami station, at 1,600 meters.

In front, the skier will observe the summit of Asahidake from its western face, 2,291 meters and a volcano's fumarole at the elevation of 1,750 meters.

Well, that's on a clear day, which is unusual, especially in the middle of winter.

The normal thing is that the skier leaves the cable car and is immersed in a white sphere, where the sky and the snow merge in a snowy abyss.

This is the climate that deposits on Asahidake the best snow in the world, the white gold, through which more and more European skiers flew before the health emergency of the coronavirus to Hokkaido.

There will be skiers who do not like days like this, but in Asahidake it is precisely when the atmosphere becomes magical.

When the sky is so closed and discharges veils of perfect feathers, I see nothing, or I see everything smooth and white.

I do not distinguish slopes, profiles or slopes, for me everything is an infinite smooth track with almost no inclination.

So much so, that on one of the descents I got fully into a trench and was literally buried under two meters of snow, luckily our guide was at hand and gave me a hand.

And despite these stumbles and the slight vertigo that the "white sphere" causes me, I prefer this fascinating and mysterious experience in the bowels of the wildest nature of Hokkaido.

The sunny days are more colorful, and the skiing improves a lot, but they are certainly much more prosaic.

enlarge photo Asahidake upper station.

Eduardo Salete Balder

Hokkaido express

Torii Gate in Daisetsuzan National Park.

Eduardo Salete Balder

The island was colonized at the end of the 19th century by samurai

and their families, whose lords had opposed the Meiji period (as in the movie

The Last Samurai

), known as tondenhei.

They were farmers and defended, sword in hand, the last frontier of Japan against the Russian Empire.

Mount Asahidake lives in an animal known as

the Pica North, a living fossil in which is based the character of Pokémon

,

Pikachu.

Although they do not hibernate, it will not be easy to see a specimen because under the snow they dig tunnels that connect their burrows.

It is also the territory of the dreaded brown bear, which can reach 500 kilos, but in winter they are resting.

The

Yuki Matsuri, Saporo's egregious snow festival, began in 1950, when students sculpted snow sculptures in Odori Park

.

The action so lifted the spirits of the population in the sad post-war period that it quickly became popular and became a tradition with giant snow sculptures.

The

National Park Daisetsuzan is the biggest in Japan

, is known in native language Ainu as Kamui Mintara, "the playground of the gods" because of the beauty of its landscapes.

It includes Mount Asahidake, the highest in Hokkaido at 2,291 meters, which due to the island's latitude competes with the Alpine mountains.

If it is not mandatory to have a guide, it is highly advisable.

All the crowds that crowd the cable car suddenly disappear when they leave at the upper station and, if the visibility is not good, it is rare that you come across someone.

The routes are endless, and the best ones are only available to local guides.

In fact, in Asahidake there are only two tracks, the rest is free mountain, so getting lost on

white days

is quite doable.

The only thing you are guaranteed to find is a titanic amount of snow, so light that it will float down the slopes even though the snow covers your chest.

The feeling is exactly the same as one imagines as a child of how it must be to play with the snow.

After "diving" a hundred meters in that layer of light dust, one enters the area of ​​fir trees, and if before the atmosphere was magical, now it becomes almost surreal.

The snow globe appears with spruces floating in the white vastness, glazed and surrounded by the most absolute silence you have ever heard.

It's like skiing in a sequence from the

Walt Disney

movie

Fantasia

.

Here the advice is to stop for five minutes, with nothing to do, retain that moment.

Then continue skiing.

Fun reaches its pinnacle.

The last third of the slope to the cable car is somewhat flat, you have to pick up speed to avoid having to row the last 50 meters, although it is almost inevitable over the small Hakuun bridge, which crosses a stream, and access the station entrance. .

For

snowboarders it

is perhaps the least “friendly” area, even so Asahidake is frequently visited by

local

boarders

with large boards up to 180 centimeters and poles with which to propel themselves in areas without slopes.

This is another good reason to hire a guide, following a route and passing the lower station of the cable car is not uncommon either.

On a snowy day, you can make about eight descents without ever stepping on the footprint of another skier, not only because of the myriad routes, but because the amount of flakes that falls on Asahidake quickly covers the marks on the boards.

The only permanent traces will be those that remain in the memory of one of the most memorable ski trips that can be made, when the pandemic allows it.

Guide frame

Yukomabetsu Ryokan, at Asahidake Onsen.

Eduardo Salete Balder

Sleeping

: Yukomabetsu Ryokan.

Traditional Japanese accommodation within Daisetsuzan National Park and 10 minutes from Asahidake Volcano.

Its traditional hot spring baths and its restaurant serving local food stand out.

Eating

: Hokkaido is a paradise for fish and sushi food, but in winter a pork or chicken ramen or Genghis Khan, grilled meat and vegetables, is better.

Try their typical potatoes and the wine of the region.

Guide

: Ski-

Ninja Powder

has guides who speak Spanish.

They know the mountain like the back of their hand and offer multi-day ski trips through the

central

backcountry

of the island.

Travel -

Wondertrunk

are specialists in Hokkaido.

Season:

From December to the end of March.

Visit

: 45 minutes from Asahidake is the city of Asahikawa, with one of the best zoos in Japan.

40 minutes from Saporo is the picturesque town of

Otaru

, an old commercial port.

And in Saporo itself you can find the

Susukino

district

,

where nightlife bustles.

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