The unavoidable is coming... the snow is melting, the days are getting longer and wet drops of rain are falling from the sky. Spring is almost here. While I'm looking forward to more daylight hours and months of gorgeous weather, it also marks the end of the snowboard season :( Spring skiing, however, is still available in Japan just like anywhere else in the world. In order to get where the snow is during Spring, one has to travel to higher and higher altitudes where the rain refuses to melt and remains wonderful snow. While most ski resorts are usually at mid-mountain level where the snow has already turned to slush, one has to come up with a way of getting to this wonderful snow that's beyond the reach of chair lifts. Enter: snowshoeing!

I've only recently discovered the wonders of snowshoeing in the past month or so. Snowshoeing has essentially remained the same since its conception - strapping a webbed frame to your feet in order to walk more easily on snow. It's simple, yet amazing, and let's the summer hiker enjoy hiking even in the winter! Last weekend I went with a few friends to the mountain range in the center of Hokkaido for two days at an onsen on a mountain called Maetokachi-dake. The four-hour drive to the onsen was slushy and rainy but once we were above the 1000m mark, the rain magically turned into a light blanket of snow.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and when the weather called for heavy winds and snow. Our group of six planned on hiking to the peak of Maetokachi that day but we thought it would be best to put that on hold. Instead, we spent that afternoon snowshoeing only a kilometer up the mountain before we found a good spot. Two people in our group wanted to do avalanche beacon training that day so we settled down and unstrapped our snowshoes. While they were doing beacon training, the rest of us built a snow cave for the hell of it. After toiling away with two shovels for three hours , we had cave big enough to fit five people. It was like being a kid again :D Once the wind and snow started to pick up in the late afternoon, we headed back down to the onsen to chill for the rest of the evening.

The next morning the weather turned out to be a bit more mild than the day before, so we decided to gear up and hike to the peak of the mountain. It had snowed the night before and laid down a couple inches of snow so it was perfect. We strapped our snowboards to our backs, our snowshoes to our feet and started up the trail to the mountain. We hiked through a forest, up and down valley walls, across avalanche gullies and eventually made it to the half-way point amongst sparsely stunted trees in wind-scoured snow. With no trees to provide cover, we were buffeted by the blowing wind and snow, limiting our vision to 10-15 meters. We stopped in the chilling wind to put on more layers then decided to traverse the mountain in order to get out of the wind. We continued on for another hour when the wind suddenly picked up and blew harder, limiting our vision to only a few meters. Our impeccable guide, Matt, decided it wasn't worth reaching the peak in this weather as we were only 3/4 up and it was hard going as it is. We found a spot to sit down, unstrapped our boards, strapped up our snowshoes and prepared to head back down the mountain. Four hours of hiking up the mountain would soon amount to less than thirty minutes back down! Despite the blowing wind (which was now in our faces), the absolute pristine and untouched powder was absolute heaven! Gliding past rock boulders on either side, down avalanche gullies and through stunted forests was an experience beyond amazing. I could only imagine what it would have been like on a clear day! We made it back to the onsen to warm up before high-tailing it out of there for the four-hour journey home. It was a busy and compact weekend, but an unforgettable one that's infused me with a love of snowshoeing and back-country skiing.

A lot of my friends go snowshoeing all throughout the winter just to reach spots that ski lifts and tourists don't go. My only regret is discovering snowshoeing at the end of the season! Ah well, I'll wait until next winter. In the non-snow parts of the year I can hike normally again and finally tackle those mountains that have been waiting for me all Winter. Rishiri and Shari, here I come!