2/20/2013: It's 5:30pm and I'm in my cozy hotel room at Rusutsu, a ski area south of Sapporo. I woke up around 7am this morning, found the bus pickup area for Rusutsu, and hopped on. I was early, so I got back off and went to the nearest convenience store for some breakfast. My throat is sore, too, so I looked for cough drops. All the packaging was in Japanese, so I stared at everything for a while and couldn't make any sense of it until I realized I was in the condoms and tampons section. The next aisle over had some Vick's cough drops. I also got another triangular rice-seaweed-fish snacky thing, my go-to snack in Japan.
The bus ride was about 2 hours to Rusutsu. I picked Rusutsu because Tomo's brother recommended it, and he's apparently a big skier and knows what he's talking about. There is a more famous ski area nearby called Niseko, but it is apparently more built-up and overrun with Australians. Rusutsu certainly has its fair share of Australian gapers too though. In doing some research for this trip (I probably spent more time figuring out where I wanted to ski than the rest of my trip), I learned that Rusutsu averages around 14 meters of snow per year. That's over 550 inches, which is more than anywhere in Colorado, and even more than Alta and Snowbird in Utah (I think they average 500 inches). On the drive to Rusutsu, it was obvious that 14 m is not an inflated number. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow. The bus arrived, everyone hustled in and was corralled to the check-in area. I was given my meal vouchers, my ski rental vouchers, and some coins for the locker. An Australian was working at the rental shop, so I got some tips from him on where to ski, and I hustled out to the lift around 11am. On my first run, I was just trying to cut over to another lift, but I found a little section marked "advanced" and received my first of many powder face shots of the day. On my next chairlift ride, we passed over a big wide glade that funnels into a ravine, just a few tracks leading into it, and I think I drooled. Before entering, there was a sign that said "off-piste skiing is prohibited" but then went on to just say that if you get hurt, we're not responsible. I took my chances and it was incredible. The powder was knee-deep, and pretty light. I was given some parabolic skis that were pretty skinny, so I was missing my own skis, but it was definitely manageable. The trick was to ride in someone else's tracks and pick up speed, then veer off into the untouched snow. While the runs could be a bit longer and steeper, I won't complain about knee-deep powder. The trees are perfect too. No big evergreens with huge tree wells, just gnarled leafless trees, perfectly spaced, covered in crazy amounts of powder. I stopped for a brief bowl of roasted pork and rice, but skied until around 4pm, and every run included trees, powder, and face shots. I've never had a deeper day of skiing. Rusutsu definitely exceeded my expectations. I've found a resort with an A-Basin vibe, some of the deepest snow on earth, and most of its patrons prefer groomers. And no Texans! Actually, I'm the closest thing to a Texan there. All the other foreigners are from Australia it seems.
Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I only took some photos with my phone, which aren't as good. I'll recharge tonight and take some better ones tomorrow hopefully. It's hard to capture just how much snow there is here, but I'll keep taking pictures. Here is my first batch:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/Rusutsu20130220
No comments:
Post a Comment