Rutsusu, Niseko & Kiroro

We headed to the resort of Rutsusu for our first day on the slopes. Daniel, our guide insisted that the snow would only be ok because it hadn't snowed in a few days so we should plan on bringing our standard gear. It only took two runs to discover that Daniel's standard of "just ok" conditions was equivalent to our description of a powder day. We spent the day gliding through the trees and over large stalks of bamboo. It took a few turns to realize that the bamboo was okay to just board over since it was often several feet tall. If you tried to avoid it completely, you would never be able to make it through a tree run. Great first day! Makes you wonder what the Japanese version of powder is.

The resort for day two, Niseko, was much larger than Rutsusu. In fact it is four resorts that all connected at the top. The chair to get to the very top was a one seat chair lift that they referred to as a "pizza box" chair. It was a little disconcerting at first given that there are no arm rests and barely a back to the chair. Fortunately, we only had to ride one once. The conditions were not great so after a few runs we decided to call it a day at Niseko and look for some back country runs.

Our first stop after Niseko was the hotel to grab some gear and then to a rental shop to rent snowshoes. If you have never used snowshoes before, I don't recommend you do it for the first time up a mountain with a snowboard and snowboard boots strapped to your back. It was a beautiful, but exhausting hour+ hike up hill (sometimes sliding downhill). I will admit, that the turns we got in fresh powder were great, but I definitely prefer chairlifts to do the work to get me to the top. 

Day 3, we hit up the resort, Kiroro. Surprisingly, I still had legs left after the previous day's hike. Although, it may have had a lot to do with the Advil I was popping like candy, and our spectacular dinner the previous night of Ghengis Kahn. Yes, that it right, we ate Ghengis Kahn for dinner! It was the Japanese version of Korean barbecue but with perfectly round pieces of delicious lamb. All that protein definitely helped out with recovery from the hike.

Kiroro powder was a little heavier than we found in Rutsusu so we stuck mostly to groomers in the morning, but we did find a couple nice spots in the afternoon. Most of our group chilled out in the cafeteria after lunch, but Dan and I came to ski, dammit, and we were the first back on the slopes. A private tour of the powder with our guide led to the best powder of the day. All in all, great so far. The question is, will Advil be enough to get me through three more days?