A few weeks ago (before I went snowshoeing) I made a trip to my local ski hill with a few good friends. We had originally planned on snowshoeing at a mountain called Kuro-dake that day but the winds at the peak there topped out at 100 km/hr. We had phoned ahead when they told us the gondola to the peak was shut down. We decided to head to another ski hill, Kita Taisetsu, instead. When we arrived, the wind was wreaking havoc there too so the upper chair lift (1 of 3) was closed. As the day progressed, the clouds lowered and the winds picked up so they closed the middle lift as well. At this point only the lower chair lift was working... for the bunny hill. We decided to head into the lodge and grab an early lunch to wait out the storm.

From the top of the 3rd chair lift there are a few more ski runs down a different face of the mountain. The lift had been closed all day and it had been dumping snow so we knew the powder over there would be untouched. We weighed our options and decided to take our chances. We decided to hike to the top of the 3rd chair lift to ski down the other side. What people do for powder! The four of us - Georgie, Eoghan, a Finnish friend, Tuomas, and I - took the 1st chair lift up 1/3 of the mountain, strapped or carried our boards, and proceeded to walk up the now-closed ski run in our boots. We got to the top in an hour and a half (whereas it would've taken ten minutes on the lift) while being buffeted the entire way by the insane 80km/hr wind and snow. The board strapped to my back acted like a wind-sail at some points, pushing me back down the hill! We rested at the top of the 2nd lift and at the peak before strapping in and dropping into the untouched runs. The wind that was in our faces on the way up was at our backs on the way down. Imagine snowboarding downhill with an 80km/hr wind at your back. It was insanely fun! I don't even know how fast I was going but the trees and bushes I did manage to see (through all the whipping snow) were moving past me pretty swiftly. I can't begin to describe how amazing the snow was! It sounds crazy to struggle up a mountain just to go down it in 1/10th of the time.. but the effort of getting up made going down all that much better!

By the time we got down to the lodge we noticed the lower lift wasn't moving. Back inside the lodge we learned that a blizzard passed over the mountain while we were climbing it so they shut down the mountain. Everyone was waiting in the lodge for the storm to pass while we were basically in it! We headed to an onsen afterwards for a much-deserved soak. Here's a video of our adventure that Georgie made and put on YouTube: