Zao Onsen Ski Hill

 

I had left Hokkaido 1-2 days prior and riding the trails southbound from Hakudate to Sendai.  

Zao Onsen GPS GPS

(there are many good slackcountry routes accessed from the boundary in this track thanks to buddy I met out there. More on this in the text below) 

The northen part of Honshu is seldomly travelled by internationals in Winter and especially less for skiing. There are still many resorts around. Limited access without cars but still doable. I overnighted in Yamagata and took a 1+ bus to Zao Onsen during the day. It turned out to be quite the fun and memorial day trip considering the skiing and the fellows I chatted with. 

Waiting for the bus in Yamatgata. 

It was actually rather difficult to find the bus stop and especially hard on a powder day. I had to ask a random person shoveling their walkway and they knew exactly where. They then processed to plow a part of the bus stop and was very generous to this clueless traveler. 

Walking from the bus station to the ski hill. There are some hotels here. 

This ski hill was organized irregularly. There were many long traverses and getting from one side to the other of the mountain required a certain series of lifts and took much time. I think this resort must have been slowly developed and decommissioned. The locals all called the runs as "courses" in English. 

First tram up in the morning

Summit photo with a religious figure. There was a quite a long line to take a photo there. Many people travel to this resort to see the translation of "snow ghosts" which are the winter trees that hold snow. 

I had linked up with a local guy on the tram up and despite a massive language barrier we skied together for several hours before he had to leave and go to work. His job was an evening highway patroller and it would super cool hanging out with him and basically getting a private tour of all the side country stashes on a powder day. There is no way I would have found these on my own and even more impressive that our ski objectives meshes almost instantly after a quick conversation at the trip. Hope he enjoyed my company as much as I did his!

Untracked goods all round. # Another best day 

Called it a natural half pipe

Onsen in the middle of the forest 

Snow ghosts at the upper lift

Picking a line and pointing out where we are meeting down below. 

Thx for being a rad ski buddy!

Zao Onsen from the lower lifts. 

I definitely want to visit more of these remote ski hills on northern Honshu another time. I have way pointed a ropeway location called Hokkoda just south of Aomori near 40.68099, 140.83124 with touring objectives