Notes from skiing trips and other random thoughts
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What a day: fresh snow, sunshine, deep blue sky, telemark skies, and nice slopes. That’s how I like it 
Luosukuru and walls of Varkaankuru were excellent Today. the snow was like silk under the skies… Too bad that this was the last skiing day of the trip, maybe the last day of season?
On the other hand, there is more snow than ever I can remember and I don’t have any plans for wappu, yet.
Yll?ɬ§s showed some of it’s best sides during weekend: sunshine, decent temperatures, and modest winds. however, no real spring snow out there yet. powder is hiding in the forests. One good run behind Kellostapuli Yesterday, but pretty warm way out from the woods…
Now it’s snowing but wind is winding down from the morning, maybe it’s soon time to hit the slopes again.
green grass and sunny weather in Helsinki and time to go for most likely last skiing days of the season Web cams from Yll?ɬ§s also show clear blue sky and beautiful white slopes. I just hope that there won’t be any change before I get there…
Now when the first version of the “official Niseko video” is available (thanks to Janne) @ Share on Ovi, it is good time to finally summarize the trip. The moving pictures summarize the most important aspects on why I will go to Niseko again pretty nicely, so let them speak first:
I will not do day by day account of the events here, since the main lines are available @ OVI (thanks to Mikko) and some additional photos available also @ flickr
Lift tickets
| Resort | Day ticket (YEN) |
Day ticket (~EUR) |
|---|---|---|
| Hirafu | 4 800 | 32 |
| Moiwa | 3 800 | 25 |
| Rusutsu | 5 000 | 33 |
There was plenty of confusing information on the lift ticket prices around, but here are the actual prices we paid during our stay. Credits cards were accepted at least in Hirafu and Rusutsu, Moiwa was cash only.
In total I paid 39 300 YEN (~ 260 EUR) for my tickets for 9 days; with one 4 hour ticket from Hirafu.
Getting there
The accommodation + flights + airport transport package via El?ɬ§mysmatkat was about 1 800 EUR. You get most likely better deal by getting tickets separately and booking accommodation directly from Niseko Powder Holidays. There is regular bus connection between Chitose airport and Niseko.
Living there:
There is plenty of excellent restaurants in downtown Niseko, the ones I remembered are in the map on the right. Good dinner with couple of beers was under 20 EUR and very local lunch was clearly below 10 EUR including beer; naturally
Grocery shopping in Niseko town is limited to two small convenience stores (Lawson and Seicomart). Both have pretty limited selection, but the essentials can be found. There is much, much better super market at Kutchan, only 10 minutes by car.
Beer and whiskey in shop was decently priced; slightly above 1 eur for a can of beer and less than 18 eur for 2 liters of local whiskey. In a restaurants beer was 3-5 eur… not too bad For me the Food, beer, whiskey, and other random costs were around 250 EUR.
So the total cost for 10 days trip was something like 2 200 EUR, not so bad for total powder experience in luxurious apartment
More info:
Back in Helsinki after long, long flight. Reminder for next time – be sure to book direct flight to Tokyo! The last day was short for me, the knees could not take anymore skiing 
Anyhow, there was again plenty of fresh snow and other enjoyed good runs in Hanazono.
Summary of the costs and tips for the trip will follow when I have time – might not be too soon…
What can I say anymore? Full day of deep and light powder at Moiwa again!
The Yesterday’s snow fall had build beautiful new layer on top of the already nice and deep snow, so we headed again to familiar turf at Moiwa and got even some sunshine every now and then. It felt like we would have got the whole resort completely for ourselves, there were only few other people and they seemed to like to ski in other slopes than us, which suited very well for our plans One of the best skiing days ever for me!
Unfortunately tomorrow is the last skiing day here But it seems to be snowing outside… Maybe there is some fun left for Tomorrow.
Another day in Moiwa. Pure untouched powder for everyone, which means 20 Finns and 5 locals – how come the concentration of Finns is higher in small Japanese resort than in Tahko? Anyhow, really deep powder and no rush. Full day of untouched runs and snow flowing over the head all the time…
The day was finished with an really excellent sukiyaki dinner at a place called Sukiyaki, next to NAC. Really recommended!
And it keeps snowing – during the dinner (maybe 90 min) it had snowed almost 10 cm on the yard of your house. Seems that tomorrow will be a nice day
… but no fresh powder either. Despite of our hopes, there was only few centimeters of new snow on the mountain this morning. Anyhow we managed to get couple of decent runs – which would actually been worth of great stories in after ski at many other resorts, but the first two days here spoiled the fun, anything less than waist deep powder is so boring The mountain would definitely need some fresh snow; luckily there is blizzard out side the window now…
Yesterday we went to A-Bu-Cha for an excellent sukiyaki meal. Recommended definitely. When speaking on food, the sushi at Fuji was also nice on another night. Both are at the main crossing of Hirafu.
While I remember, here are some links:
A full day of in-pist telemarking in Rusutsu under blue sky and bright sun with nice views to Mt. Yote. No powder for today, but nice outdoor day anyway Rusutsu seems to be really a resort for families and big groups; huge hotels, amusements park, many golf courses, and pretty steep mountain. Off-pist skiing was strongly discouraged with signs, but everything accessible from the lifts was completely tracked. Weather forecast says that it would be snowing for whole night – so have to get prepared for early morning
Yesterday we also learned basic facts of dining out in Hirafu: we were trying to find a table for 7 around 7-8 pm. and we must have visited almost every restaurant of the village and all of them were full. The trick is that the restaurants take reservations for 6 pm or 6:30 pm only. When we left the place we finally found at 9 pm, it was basically empty. So the rule is: book a table or go late (after 8:30 pm).
Btw, in addition to my flickr set, media from here is now also available in Mikko’s Twango stream.
A mountain full of powder again. Unfortunately we had to ski whole day on untouched snow that flied over the head all the time blocking the view. And the onsen after skiing really relaxes legs and head
This seems to be excellent place for a skier.
On side note, the knee also feels better
