Back to back powder days, what an unfamiliar experience. Unfortunately, the streak ends at 2 this time as the sky has cleared and freezing level has risen this afternoon to indicate a pause in this return to Japan normality.
We woke to about 20cm fresh snow overnight down at Togari Onsen and made our way up to Tangram for first lifts. Despite the large crowds from the tail end of Chinese New Year, the classic Tangram trees lines held out until late morning before the tracks and sun took their toll. Some well-timed positioning for the opening of several alpine chairlifts saw us enjoy a proper japow day with plenty of face shots.
You can still feel a few logs and stumps under the snow, but with back to back snow days there was no direct contact and my edges and bases remain intact. The pizza box single chair at Madarao remained closed today, preventing easy access into the backcountry. Ski patrol was also very visible and with a number of tree zones being closed due to the early season conditions the available tree skiing options quickly became tracked out. This was the best day’s skiing I have had so far this season so no complaints here!
The forecast is calling for 3 days of sunny skies and freezing levels rising to around 1200m before we see the next storm hopefully roll in. Compared to the season so far this is a great forecast, and longer-term there are some other bigger storms that could deliver great things later next week. Fingers crossed we don’t return to rain and can continue to build on this base.
