Perfect alpine Hakuba backcountry

7 Jan 09

The terrain of the Korenge Dake ridge from 2600m seldom disappoints me. Today's group of friends was a group of local Hakuba residents (gaijins) along with Hans Christian form Norway and Bill Glude from Alaska. We had soft deep snow from the very ridge, some steep entries into a great bowl and then more powder all the way down to the flats 700m below.

Our aim had been as far as Shirouma Dake but we ran out of time. Other very appealing alternatives were also dismissed due to a lack of time. Saved for another occasion.

I skied again today and did very badly with the powder being quite grabby in places and my narrow skis and low skill level adding to the challenge. I struggled. Tomorrow I will go back and snowboard it.

Mat drops in

Hans drops in

Hans in a small chute, not so much powder there.